“Eventually the Lord will bring us to a place where we have little choice but to stop, listen, and obey.” – Dr. John Maxwell

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. (Jonah 2:7)

What is God telling you to do?
How are you responding?

Yesterday, Matt Gregory (my pastor) preached a powerful message at Soul Purpose Church about The Growth Choice. This message came from Pastor Rick Warren’s teaching in an 8 week series we are doing called “Life’s Healing Choices” based on the 8 beatitudes.

Matt shared 7 keys on “how to continue growing.” I was convicted by the very first one – “Fix a daily time with God.” Despite the fact that I teach over and over about the importance of good habits and a godly daily routine, I’ve allowed my daily routine to become anything but routine. Oh I’ve had my good excuses for why this has happened, but in the end they are all excuses.

Before going to bed last night at 8:20 pm, I purposed in my mind that I would get up at 5:00 am, read my Bible for 30 minutes, journal for 30 minutes (including prayer), exercise for 30 minutes, take Maui (our 4 month old puppy) for a walk, and then go to the IHOP (formerly International House of Pancakes, but now International House of Prayer) at 7:00 am for breakfast, fellowship, and prayer with Pastor Jeff Light and anyone else who choose to come.

Maui woke my up barking around 9:30 pm and again at 10:30 pm because another dog was barking outside. She woke me up again around 3:30 am and I let her outside to pee. I then went back to sleep. When my PDA alarm went off at 5:00 am, I still felt tired and reset it for 5:30 am. However, God was going to have none of that and Maui kept wining until I got up for good.

After feeding Maui and letting her outside, I went to our family room to read my Maxwell Leadership Bible. I just happened to open to page 1084 and the very first thing I read jumped out at me and hit me between the eyes like a ton of bricks, “Eventually the Lord will bring us to a place where we have little choice but to stop, listen, and obey.”

After reading some of Dr. John Maxwell’s commentary and part of the book of Jonah, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the messages from Jonah are what I am to write about this week for Your Daily Blessing. I then read 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter) and repented to God for not showing more love to those closest to me.

Prayer Power
Most gracious and merciful heavenly Father, I’ve gotten off track with my daily routine and some good habits I thought were firmly established. Gradually over time they have slipped away. Please forgive me. Thank You for you patience and mercy. I confess that I need your help getting back to some of the basics that I teach. Help me to set aside three times each day to pray like Daniel did. I love you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Blessings to choose to grow!

Blessing of the Day
“Abiding in the Vine” (Part I) – Bishop Lemuel F. Thuston

R. Joseph Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
THE CONNECTOR and The Journaling Guy

TEAM DESTINY

P.S. Sign up TODAY for my free E-course ““30 Days To Breakthrough.” God wants to transform your life NOW!

P.S.S. Spiritual Journaling will transform your life!

UNCOMMON Journaling is the key
to unlock YOUR dreams!

Yesterday I had one of the most bizarre days of my life, in a good sense.

Then this morning, I had a very powerful and humbling 2-way dialog with the LORD. In follow up to that, I posted a new message at Journal777 titled “You’re being a know-it-all is what’s getting in your way!”

For the past few years I’ve wanted to record the audio for my written Life Story, sharing what my life was like before I met Jesus, how I met Jesus, and what my life has been like since.

As a result of my 2-way journaling time this morning, I finally did that. And then I posted my Testimony (written and audio) on all my major blogs.

If interested in listening to or downloading my audio testimony, please see
http://yourdailyblessing.com/welcome/testimony/

Blessings to BE transparent and share your own life story!

Randy Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
THE CONNECTOR and The Journal Guy

P.S. Spiritual Journaling will transform your life!

Journaling is the key
to unlock YOUR dreams!

Receive FREE E-book Introduction to UNCOMMON Journaling For Breakthroughs

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

What are YOUR most valuable relationships?
What simple step can you take TODAY to be better steward of those?

On Friday Feb 13, the Holy Spirit prompted me to spend several hours doing an inventory of my relationships. During that process, the LORD revealed to me how to use The Journal software to take my stewardship of relationships to a whole new level. That is the topic of today’s 8 pm EST webinar. I invite you to join Jerry and me for that.

Under the category JIREH Marketing, I created a new category called Joint Ventures and under that I created 3 tiers of people I know and correspond with regularly – Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Under Level 1, I created categories using names of people who have had a dramatic impact on my life and sorted those people in chronological order – the order God brought them into my life.

My parents were first. They modeled the love of God throughout my life. They instilled in me the habit of going to church every week. They taught me countless values which have not only impacted me, but ten of thousands of people I have come across during my lifetime.

After my parents, came Rev. Mark Jarvis. Not only did he lead me to a personal relationship with Jesus and disciple me spiritually, but he opened the door for a long-term relationship with Rev. Matt Gregory, my current pastor, and Michael Stay. The four of us met weekly in a coaching group for 4 years. Through this support network, my faith grew exponentially and many Kingdom doors of opportunity were opened.

Following them, other people I listed included Erick Kalenga, Virginia Morton, Rick Heeren, Jack Serra, Jeff Bernstein, Joseph Umidi, Bowie Curry, Jack Stagman, Jerry Graham, Ben Stewart, Mark Virkler, Karla Meachem, and Lynne Lee.

Today I want to give a special thanks to Karla and Lynne. Both of these ladies I met through Twitter. They both chose to become JIREH Marketing members. And in just a few months, they have had a profound impact on me. Both are extremely humble. They are avid users of Relationship Marketing (Web 2.0). And both keep their eyes focused on Jesus and daily seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. Through their close relationships with Jesus, they supernaturally manifest the “go-giver” philosophy.

This morning I visited Karla’s site Empowering Christian Women, which is my favorite site ever for Christian resources. I was particularly touched by the Father’s Love Letter” YouTube vido. See Blessings of the Day to learn more.

Karla also has a personal blog titled “More of Him: Less of Me.” This morning when I visited that, I noticed Karla wrote, “I’ve been asked to do another interview on internet radio. Once again, I am stepping out in faith. :) This will be my 3rd interview this month ~ one last Tuesday, one last Wednesday and another one soon – please stay tuned for the details.”

What’s amazing is that Karla’s breakthroughs and some of my new breakthroughs came as a result of her choice to sow a financial seed to be JIREH Marketing Member. As a result, she joined TEAM DESTINY, God’s team to change lives and disciple nations. As a result of that, Dr. Jerry Graham and I hosted Karla as our guest expert for the “JIREH Marketing: Empowering Christian Women” webinar on Feb 3.

That was Karla’s very first interview and now the gates of heaven are open for her to have explosive Kingdom impact. PTL. You go girl.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the precious gift of relationships, which are the currency of the Kingdom of God. I thank You for each and every person who has sown good seeds into my life. I thank You for the recent relationships you helped me establish with Karla Meachem and Lynne Lee. Thank You for the new and big doors of opportunity You are opening for both of them. Bless their marriages, their families, and their ministries (businesses). May both of them accomplish more for Your Kingdom in 2009 than they did previously in their entire lives. Thank You Jesus. With You all things are possible. Amen and Hallelujah!

Blessings of the Day
1) ““JIREH Marketing: Blogi360 – The Website That Works For You” FREE webinar at 11 am EST today (Feb 17)

2) “Experiencing God Through Journaling: Stewarding Your Relationships” FREE webinar at 8 pm EST today (Feb 17)

3) Father’s Love Letter YouTube video at Empowering Christian Women

4) More of Him: Less of Me personal blog by Karla Meachem

5) Christian Life Coaching – by Lynne Lee

Blessings to be a great steward of your relationships!

————————————————————————————–

The Holy Spirit is inviting YOU to become part of TEAM DESTINY. If you want more favor in your life, then join our team. Favor is always proportional to God’s assignment. That’s because the greater the assignment, the greater the adversity.

Journaling is the key to unlock your dreams!
Journaling is the key to unlock your DESTINY!

Is journaling biblical? Absolutely! Father God is the greatest Journaler of all times. The Bible is His journal – the most profound one of all times. And throughout time, the Holy Spirit has inspired millions of people to write to inspire others to greatness.

Blessings for divine provision and breakthroughs!

Dr. Randy Peck
“Blessed to be a blessing”
The Connector – connecting people, ideas, and resources in Christ through the POWER of the Holy Spirit

P.S. If you’re a small thinker and don’t want your faith to soar, this book is definitely not for you. But if you believe in a BIG God who has destined you for greatness, then you’ve come to the right place.

By humility and the fear of the LORD Are riches and honor and life. (Proverbs 22:4)

In what areas of your life, do you need to die to yourself?

Yesterday evening, rather than hosting the weekly marriage LIFE group at our home, I attended the Tenebrae Service at New Salem Baptist Church. Before Pastor Chad Whaley and his wife Briana invited me a week ago, I had never heard of Tenebrae. The Tenebrae service has already had a huge impact me, not just last night, but this morning.

During this entire Passion Week, God has spoken the word “humility” to me over and over. So yesterday morning, the first prayer I wrote in my journal was one asking God to bless me with UNCOMMON humility. At the Tenebrae service, I wrote 4 different words on my black card and nailed that to the cross. One of those was “pride.” That’s not a fun thing to look at in yourself. It’s not an easy thing to share about. It’s interesting that the topic this week in my Implementation coaching course just happened to be “Dying to Yourself.”

Here is what Ken Collins says on his web page titled “What is a Tenebrae Service?”

The word ‘tenebrae’ is Latin for shadows. The purpose of the Tenebrae service is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story, so this is not supposed to be a happy service, because the occasion is not happy. If your expectation of Christian worship is that it should always be happy and exhilarating, you won’t appreciate this service until the second time you attend it.

The service was originally designed for Good Friday, but it can be used for Maundy Thursday as well. Both services have long scripture narratives, which for this service are divided into seven, eight, or nine parts, each one assigned to a different reader.

The service may include other parts, such as solemn hymns, a sermon, and Communion, but the core of the Tenebrae service works like this: It starts out with the church in candlelight. There are as many candles as there are readings, plus a white Christ candle. The readers go up one at a time, read their assigned selections, and extinguish one of the candles, until only the Christ candle remains. Then someone reads the first part of Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted on the cross. Then the Christ candle is put out, leaving the congregation in near total darkness—and near total devastation. At this point, the service ends. There is no benediction and the people leave in silence.

The purpose of the service is to recreate the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of the events, and it is left unfinished, because the story isn’t over until Easter Day.

The first time I went to a Tenebrae service, I thought it was awful, because I didn’t understand it. But I went a second time and now it is my favorite service in the year! After I became a pastor, I had one at my church. It was the first time they experienced a Tenebrae service, so I prepared them for it. Everyone who attended said it was the most moving service they had ever been to.

If you see only the happy ending of a movie, everyone who saw it from the start is elated, but you go away saying, “So they were all hugging each other? So what?” But if you see the beginning and the middle part, with all the suspense and grief, you understand what the characters overcame, and the happy ending is all the happier. So to me, attending the Easter service without attending the Holy Week services is like watching the happy ending of the movie without seeing the middle—you only rob yourself of joy.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, thank You for going to work on me in the past week to expose pride in my heart. Forgive me for the ways I have made things about me instead of about You. Bless me with UNCOMMON humility that I may truly serve the Body of Christ. Teach me and those reading this message to die to ourselves daily to rise to new life in You. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Link of the Day
High impact YouTube video on the power of humility in 6 year old child

Blessings for UNCOMMON humility!

You will save the humble people; but Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. (2 Samuel 22:28)

Have you ever prayed for humility?
In what ways can you be more humble at home and at work?

Today is Good Friday, a day the Body of Christ around the world commemorates the death of Jesus Christ. That may well have been the most humbling day in the history of the world, especially for the followers of Jesus.

On Palm Sunday (March 16), the Holy Spirit spoke the word “humility” to me. Then the next day, I had a phone conversation with someone who subscribes to this devotional warning me to stay humble.

Yesterday morning after listening to my scheduled iTunes playlist for Day #20, I came downstairs to journal. The first thing I typed was “Your branding is your business – Epiphany Marketing.” That led me to do a google search using ‘ “epiphany marketing” johnson ‘ which led me to Michael Pink’s blog. There I found 2 amazing articles about humility – “And a Child Shall Lead Them” and “The Power of Talent With Humility.” The Holy Spirit immediately prompted me to share Michael’s message in this devotional. Here it is:

Have you ever noticed how we automatically and subconsciously put up our walls when a person comes across in a prideful or arrogant way? Just the opposite seems to be true when a powerful force comes across in a humble package.

I am beginning to think that this thing about being created in the image of God may also include carrying some of His preferences. I know we are fallen people, redeemed by Christ. I know we have a sinful nature, but I also think that we still have built in us, at least the potential to appreciate and value and be drawn to the virtues God values. Even if we don’t know the Lord. There is something in most, if not all of us, that wants the character of God. There’s a hunger for His authenticity. The video link I sent you last week of Paul Potts was a great picture of that truth as the audience was enthralled with an authenticity that lacked glitz but carried power.

As if you needed further evidence of the pure touching even the heart of the most calloused, take a look at this 6 year old hitting the national stage in Britain.
 

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To me it speaks of how much people at some level want something pure, something good, something wholesome. It’s another picture of what happens when you combine talent with humility. Something wonderful happens. Let’s humble ourselves while mastering our gifts and watch where God takes us!

Prayer Power
LORD Jesus, on this Good Friday, we say thank You for paying a debt we could never pay – for paying the ultimate price and giving Your best that we might have eternal life through You. Holy Spirit, guide my steps to keep me humble as I traverse this life as Your vessel. Shape me, mold me as You would see fit. Have Your way. Thy will be done. Amen.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 2:5)

Where does servant leadership start?

The 14 week Life Focus course I have been taking to further develop leadership coaching skills has been quite enlightening. A Life Focus coach helps a client pull together gleanings (insights) from the past, recognize major convergence experiences, uncover hidden dreams, and flesh out important goals to fulfill those dreams. The end result is greater focus in one’s life to fulfill one’s God-given destiny. In a way this is taking a time-out in life to evaluate where one is, how God got him there, and where God is leading him.

In the process of pulling together my own past, I reviewed each of my family Christmas letters posted online for the past 8 years. Each of those letters includes family highlights and top life lessons for the previous year. Much can be gleaned from that. The first paragraph of my 2006 Christmas letter states, “The key message for me was ‘On my knees, I find refuge’ – lyrics from a song I heard sung twice by Miriam Halsey.”

In yesterday’s devotional, I shared how the Holy Spirit told me on November 15, “You will fulfill your mission by serving your wife!” I then went on to talk about servant leadership.

But where does servant leadership start? I believe it starts on our knees before Almighty God in reverence to Him. Something special happens when I kneel down, bow my head, and pray – I humble myself before God. It’s submitting my will and my life to God that has brought me into a deeper relationship with Him. When I’m on my knees I’m expressing my total dependance on God. Humbling myself before God and experiencing His grace and mercy makes it much easier to humble myself before people.

While Jesus told us he is our “friend,” He is also Lord of lords and King of kings. To be a servant leader, I must be ever mindful that God is God and I’m not. New Age philosophy teaches that we are all gods, which is completely unbiblical. While the Bible teaches that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, it also teaches that Jesus is my Vine and apart from Him I can do nothing. Without a fresh daily infilling of the Holy Spirit, I begin to quickly wither like a branch cut from a tree.

Far too often when I get to know a prominent Christian leader, my heart is broken to see that person suffering the consequences of a busy lifestyle as a result of service to God, rather than reaping abundant fruit that comes from a deep abiding relationship with God. Our culture in America constantly tugs at us to join others in the tyranny of the urgent. Yet God never intends for our ministry to people to supercede our relationship with Him. The Greatest Commandment and the first of the Ten Commandments confirm this.

What appointment, what meeting, what TV show, who in your day is more important than  meeting with God the Father? Which newspaper, what book will you choose to read that is more inspiring, more life changing than the Bible? When you pray, do you really believe God wants to bless you and will answer those prayers? How big are your prayers? How big is your God? What excuses will you permit in your life to keep you from seeking God with all your heart?

O let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now Spirit to spirit. He wants to speak life into your life and your family right now. Receive it. Die to yourself and surrender to Him. The heavenly Father I know is far more loving and generous than any early father could ever be. He’s my all in all. Let Him be for You too.

Prayer Power
Jesus, I believe that You are coming back soon. You are preparing a beautiful bride to prepare the way for Your return. Show me how to step it up several notches for You and guide me to do that. May I seek to ever deepen by my relationship with You. Call people to join “Team Destiny” to save the lives of more than one billion souls soon. Bring in the spiritual tsunami. Praise be to God! Amen and hallelujah.

Link of the Day
On My knees (Dueth With Abel Orta*) – stirring Youtube video

Blessings to get on your knees to find the power in His love!

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (Colossians 1:13)

How are you responding to God’s call?

On Sunday morning July 8, I received the following email from Bowie Curry, the prayer coordinator for the Greater Fredericksburg area.

Hi Randy! Just wanted to tell you what a blessing your devotionals have been to me personally and to I’m sure many others. Your heart to network the Body of Christ through the internet and other media has already revolutionized the way others as well as myself communicate vision for ministry. Keep up the good work, brother! The Lord is with you!

I’m sitting in the lobby of a Travel Lodge in Nashville still trying to process the significance of what I and about 80 or 90 thousand other experienced yesterday at The Call. Since you mentioned it in your letter I thought I would share some first hand impressions.

It was a fast not a feast. This was not a Christian rock festival, but a “solemn assembly” serious call to prayer, fasting, repentance, spiritual warfare and above all extravagant worship of God.

From beginning to end it lasted about 14 hours. It was blistering hot; most of us were hungry from fasting [some had fasted for 40 days before the event; I can only imagine what they were experiencing!] A significant number stood or, it seemed, danced in front of the platform for the entire time! If God has His Navy SEALS these were surely numbered among them! This event was a challenge and a call to the emerging generation of young people to the most radical lifestyle of prayer and fasting, the highest standards of personal holiness, utter abandonment to the pursuit of intimacy with Christ and extravagant, self-sacrificing love for the lost and hurting. It was astounding to me that the higher the bar was set the more resounding the “Yes!” from the heart of these youth. No sacrifice seemed too great, nor any love too extravagant. At a certain point I was tempted to question whether I had ever really been saved in the light of what I was witnessing!

Well, praise God, I am saved but there is no doubt in my mind after witnessing this event that for those who are willing to heed “The Call”, there is extraordinary grace that is being offered from heaven!

Radical Islam has infected the hearts of millions of Muslim youth willing to lay down their lives in murderous, religious zeal. Are we to believe if Satan has his troops that are willing to pay the ultimate price out of a motivation of hatred, fear, and foolish rewards that God would not have those who out of love for Jesus and compassion for the lost would be willing to pay any cost or endure any privation? For me, The Call settled that once and for all. Because God’s love never fails, Islam and every other false kingdom must fall. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, thank You for the 80,000-90,000 people who participated in TheCall Nashville on 07-07-07. Thank You for many others who responded to TheCall in their own communities. We ask You now to fan the flames. Keep the fire of desire burning bright to reclaim America for Jesus. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Link of the Day
Photos from TheCall Nashville [http://www.flickr.com/photos/thoughtquotient/750592065/]

Blessings to raise the bar higher and higher in your own life!

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits. (Proverbs 16:2)

How can you get your life out of its out-of-whack state?

The Holy Spirit’s instruction to me last year was to make 2007 a year of Sabbath rest. Before the new year began, I prepared a list of simple objectives. One of my goals was to review my spiritual journals for the past few years. Did I do this? No. Gradually, I began over-committing myself and striving harder and harder to provide for my family.

Now it’s time to get back to the basics. But what are they? Living a Christ-centered, spiritual life requires a commitment to Bible reading, prayer, fellowship, and witnessing. Since the secret of my future is hidden in my daily routine, I must firmly establish a healthy daily and weekly routine. To be spiritually healthy, I must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life.

The theme verse for the National Day of Prayer in 2007 is 2 Chronicles 7:14 which begins “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray … then I will heal their land.” So even before we begin to pray, we need to humble ourselves before God. One way to do that is to get down on our knees and bow our heads in reverence to Almighty God as we pray. I want to be humble, not stiff-necked. Jesus might be my friend, but He’s also LORD of the universe.

There are numerous scriptures in the Bible stressing the importance of humility and the dangers of pride. Adam and Eve fell because of pride. Last night, I decided on the title of today’s devotional and the theme of humility. This morning, on this 16th day of March, I read Proverbs 16. Here’s what this chapter has to say about pride and humility.

Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD. (Proverbs 16:5)

Pride goes before destruction. (Proverbs 16:18)

Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud. (Proverbs 16:19)

Prayer Power
Father, I’m off track from what You instructed me to do in 2007. This has hardly been a year of Sabbath rest. Forgive me for striving more than abiding. I want to get back to Your basics. Teach me what it means to humble myself and pray. Thank You Jesus for Your patience with me. I bless You.

Link of the Day
Stick With the Basics – by LeRoy Eims (The Navigators)
[www.navigators.org/us/articles/items/Stick%20With%20the%20Basics]

Blessings to humble yourself and pray!

“if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

The Bible verse above is the overall theme verse for both the National Day of Prayer [www.nationaldayofprayer.org] (America) and the Global Day of Prayer [www.globaldayofprayer.com], two of the largest prayer organizations in the world. It consists of four conditions and three promises from God. We’ll begin by putting this verse in context and then break down its components.

The verse immediately preceding 2 Chronicles 7:14 states “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people,…” In other words, when you are a child of God and He smites the land where you living (e.g. your family, city, state, or country), the remedy lies with you, not the lost.

What are the four conditions God demands of His people?
1) “humble themselves” – God tells us to be humble even before we begin to pray.
2) “pray” – By praying we recognize our complete dependence on God.
3) “seek My face” – The presence and power of God change us and our circumstances.
4) “turn from their wicked ways” – God commands us to stop sinning and to be holy.

What are God’s promises to those who obey these four conditions?
1) “then I will hear from heaven” – God will listen to our prayers when we obey Him.
2) “and will forgive their sin” – God will forgive our sins when we confess them.
3) “and heal their land” – Only God can heal a cursed community.

America is in moral decline. Pride, lust (sexual immorality), and greed are rampant. The nation is on the verge of a financial holocaust because of the huge debt of its people and government. Our society is suffering from families breaking up, depression, anxiety, illness, and horrible natural disasters.

If we don’t understand holiness, then nothing else will really matter. There are only two choices in the Bible, darkness and light. Darkness is living in sin and light is living in holiness. You can’t have one foot in both areas. If salt were to represent light and pepper darkness, the salt becomes adulterated with only one grain of pepper. 98% holiness is not holiness. Holiness emanates from the family.

What are you doing to create an environment conducive to holiness in your family?
Make a list of your sins and ask God for His help and you will be on your way.

Prayer Power
Father God, LORD of the universe, You’ve got the whole world in Your hands, including my family. Forgive me for the part I have played in the moral decline of America in the past. Bless me to humble myself, pray, seek Your face, and turn from my own wicked ways so that I may lead my family by example. Take captive every thought of mine to the obedience of Jesus Christ so that I may be holy as You command. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Link of the Day
Holy Living [http://wordbytes.org/Bible/HolyLiving1.htm]

Your Daily Blessing News
Starting tomorrow, I will begin doing weekly series on particular topics. For instance, tomorrow we will start a 7 day series titled “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.” Each Monday, there will be a general introduction, followed by more elaboration on Tuesday-Friday. The devotionals on Saturdays will be dedicated to sharing personal testimonies. Sunday devotionals will be focused on prayer.
Other sites of interest: The Marketplace & Marriage Connection [www.themmconnection.com]

According to Walter Brueggeman, “Recovery of the Sabbath is the most crucial and most demanding covenant command (spiritual discipline) now to be faced in the technological society.”

Leviticus 23:3 states “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.”

How serious is it to keep the Sabbath holy?
And what does it mean practically to keep the Sabbath holy?

Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We must address the serious problem of busyness in our lives to experience a great awakening. The devil doesn’t have to get us to do anything bad to be at work in our lives. All he has to do is keep us busy.

My father told me that when we lived in Charlottesville Virginia in the early 1960′s, only one business was open on Sundays and that was an international one. Today, hundreds of businesses are open on Sundays and people scurry around shopping. Sports and children activities have invaded every day of the week. Families have little time of solitude together to communicate.

It is not easy to take a Sabbath. You’ve got to decide to do it. A regular Sabbath puts a brake on overwork. In order to practice Sabbath, you must learn one powerful word, “No”. That little word creates the hearth in which the fires of our calling can burn brightly.

Sabbath is … an attitude of the heart which recognizes the need for regular soul care within the rhythm of daily life… Sabbath is the gift of rest, reflection, and renewal – a time of preparation at the beginning of the week, not a restoration from exhaustion at the end of a long busy week. – David Steffenson, First Lutheran Church, Little Falls, Minnesota

Prayer Power
Father, we praise You as the LORD of the Sabbath. It’s clear from numerous scriptures that You take the Sabbath seriously. Forgive me for the many times I have disobeyed You by failing to keep the Sabbath holy. You teach that obedience is more important than sacrifice. Help me to understand and apply your command to keep the Sabbath holy! In Yeshua’s name, I pray. Amen.

Blessings of the Day
Sabbath Keeping and Sabbatical Taking

How to Keep the Sabbath, Part 1, Laboring to Rest – outstanding video teaching by Pastor Doug Batchelor

How to Keep the Sabbath, Part 2 – outstanding second part video teaching by Pastor Doug Batchelor

 
What does it mean practically to keep the Sabbath holy? – Youtube video by John Piper

Blessings to keep the Sabbath holy!

Joseph

Joseph Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
Dr. Breakthrough, THE CONNECTOR, and The Journal Guy
Founder and Executive Director of Webinars777
Breakthrough Life Coach helping your DREAMS come true
Creative Marketing and Communication Specialist

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P.S.S. Spiritual Journaling will transform your life!

UNCOMMON Journaling is the key
to unlock YOUR dreams!