Today's Devotions

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Showcase: Assorted Treats

  • Everyday Tasks: The Two Marys at the Gravesite +

    Everyday Tasks Read More
  • Washing Feet Devotional +

    Scripture John 13 13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Read More
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200px-OswaldChambersHe moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel,

and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord -Genesis 12:8

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram "pitched his tent" between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time- there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must "pitch our tents" where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life- worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.

 

Reflections to Consider

  • Warfare Spirituality

    The Trinity function as farmers of our souls, actively caring for God’s creation: an ongoing, radical reclamation of His creation. Read More
  • You are free

    The Jesus who calmed a sea of deadly, stormy waves, whose arrival sent thousands of demons cringing and cowering to Read More
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Publications

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Music

  • Magnificent

    Few songs capture the entrancing, humbling, overwhelming awe I experience in the presence of God. Magnificent, a song by U2 Read More
  • I'll Go Crazy

    I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight Every generation gets a chance to change the world - U2 Read More
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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Best of EM Bounds on Prayer +

    This is a compilation of some of the writings by E.M. Bounds. I've read a fair amount of books on Read More
  • Prayer - Does it Make Any Difference, Philip Yancey +

    Contemporary classic that probes the meaning of prayer for 21st century believers, and provides extended, personal anecdotes from a wide Read More
  • Prayer, Ole Hallesby and Clarence J. Carlsen +

    This is a little known work which has a significant impact on those who read it. Read More
  • From Unceasing Thinking to Unceasing Prayer +

    Our minds are always active. We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • A Sanctuary for the Holy Spirit +

    In all your ways acknowledge him,and he will guide your paths. Proverbs 3: 6. It is a bit of a Read More
  • I Believe in the Holy Spirit +

    The I Believe series, of which Rector Michael Green is the editor, illustrate basic Christian teaching in practical, understandable language. Read More
  • Depending entirely on the power of the Holy Spirit: George Muller +

    The Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost to the church in her collective capacity, to abide with Read More
  • Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophecy, by Dr. Wayne Grudem +

    A fascinating discussion of the nature of prophecy in the 21st century, by Wayne Grudem. He became Research Professor of Read More
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