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May 22, 2006
My Cup Overflows

Lord , You have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. ---Psalm 16:5

Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. ---Psalm 71:3

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. ---Psalm 62:1-2

He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. ---Psalm 40:2-3

I will ever praise you. My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. ---Psalm 71:6, 8

You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. ---Psalm 16:11

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. ---Psalm 23:5-6



He makes my empty cup overflow.

“My Cup is Running Over” God’s blessings are always a superabundance. When the “LORD is my shepherd,” “my cup runs over” in superabundance. We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to experience God’s banquet house. His overflowing grace is something we experience as Christians in this life. Jesus said, “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). That is a cup running over with God’s grace. He does not just give us the gift of eternal life when we first believed, but He keeps on giving eternal life. The life He gives us is perisson, meaning, “to have a surplus,” “superabundance,” “till it overflows.” Jesus gives us Himself (John 14:6). He is this abundant life. It is God’s kind of life. “My cup overflows,” means it is not just full; it is “running over,’ filled to the brim and overflowing. God’s saving and sustaining grace is always like that. His grace is always in fullness, abundance and all-sufficiency. The woman of Samaria met Jesus at Jacob’s well on a hot day. Jesus did not have a rope and a bucket to draw the water from the well so He asked the woman for a drink of water to quench His thirst. In the course of the conversation with the woman Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water’” (John 4:10). Jesus was ready to give this woman, who was a slave to sin, running water. “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (v. 14). Jesus is the source of a spring of living water that is always bubbling up, unfailing source, ever fresh. The idea is of water leaping, springing up. It is full of action, not a stagnant pool of water, but water gushing up with energy. Jesus puts the well within us. The well springs up, and it goes on springing up from within into everlasting life. Jesus a few chapters later tells us, “If any man is thirsty, let Him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, ‘from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). These are rivers from the inside depths of one’s being. Jesus did not say just a trickle now and then, but rivers gushing forth from within you. In the next verse Jesus tells us this is the work of the Holy Spirit. God has made every provision for the believer to live a life that overflows with God’s grace. The Holy Spirit baptized every true believer into the body of Christ the moment he or she first believed on Christ as his Savior. We receive one baptism, but many fillings of the Holy Spirit. God’s desire is that we be continually under the control of His Spirit. The apostle Paul is a good example of a believer who made himself available to God without reservation.  That is all God asks of us. The grace of God was available to him to “preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). He prays for the Ephesian believers that Christ may be permitted to settle down and to dwell at home in a permanent place in their hearts (v. 17). Paul is saying there is no limit to what God can do in and through you if you will yield your life to Him. His fullness is limitless, endless, and eternal. “That you maybe fitted with all the fullness of God” (v. 19). My cup runs over because He “is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (v. 20). That is the believer who has received the fullness of God, and grace upon grace. It is the superabundance of life that we receive through the Spirit in Christ Jesus. This is the fullness of life Jesus gives and it causes our cups to run over with the fullness of joy. No Christian is poor while Christ is rich. Because of our intimate vital union with Christ we enjoy all His riches of His glory. We can never be poor spiritually when we enjoy “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” “My cup runs over!” One of the great principles of the Christian life is the more you receive, the more you want. If your cup is overflowing, you want more of Him, and the wonderful thing is it will never run dry. All you have to do is come and drink. This superabounding life in Christ is ever growing, expanding and increasing as we are “changed from glory into glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). Our cup overflows by drinking a life that changes us “from glory to glory.” Another great principle is the more you give away the more you get. There is no more effective way of serving Christ than when your cup is running over. When you serve Him from the overflow you have a ministry that will impact eternity. Oh, Lord cleanse, and fill me until I run out all over the place with the fullness of your grace. Selah! Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Fill My Cup
By Richard Blanchard

Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy,
And then I heard my Savior speaking,
"Draw from My well that never shall run dry."

Chorus:
Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul,
Bread of Heaven, feed me 'til I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

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May 18, 2006
Fill My Cup

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

A learned man, once went to have tea with a well-known teacher to see what he could learn. As the teacher spoke, the learned man would frequently interrupt him with remarks like, "Oh, yes, we have that too....", "Yes, I've done that too" and so on.

Finally the teacher stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man. He poured the cup full, and then kept pouring until the cup overflowed.

"Enough!" the learned man once more interrupted. "No more can go into the cup!"

"Indeed, I see," answered the teacher. "If you do not first empty the cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?"

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Before asking the Lord to fill your cup -- make sure it's empty!

___________

Empty it of the things of this world, empty it of self, of sin. Come thirsty, let Jesus fill your empty cup with His living water.

Lord, let us come to You with empty cups, that You may fill them and we may taste Your living water.

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May 12, 2006
Bear With One Another

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

So how do we bear with one another?

By relying on God's love- God's love in us thru the living and written Word.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

God is Love -- Perfect Love!

Bear With One Another
Love Earnestly from the Heart

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May 9, 2006
God Will Make A Way

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

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God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way, He will make a way     -- Don Moen

___________

He is ...

Light in the darkness
You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light. (2 Samuel 22:29)

Bread where there is hunger
I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry ... (John 6:35)

Water where there is drought
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

Hope for the lost
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Life for the dying
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

He makes a way where there is no way...

Lord, open our eyes, our hearts to Your way, Your truth, Your life ...

... I am the way, the truth and the life ...

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May 8, 2006
Press On to Take Hold

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Ever notice how things seem to happen when we:
* pray expectantly and believe He will work things out for the best,
* focus to that end and really trust the Lord with all our heart?

Even when things don’t work out like planned, or the Lord doesn't answer the way we expect, often we find that things were worked out even better than imagined. Or when things don’t work out, we find that God worked in them for continued growth as his child.

It's in this straining to press on, this straining to take hold of what Christ has for us that growth happens and things change for God's glory.

Lord with Your help, let us keep reaching, straining forward, to take hold of what is ahead. Keep our eyes and hearts fixed on You, Oh Lord.

Philippians 3:14    I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Press On
Those two simple words mean a great deal.

They bring to mind an image of someone pushing into the wind, head down, one shoulder forward, taking one tough step after another.

During difficult times, the image serves as a reminder that giving up is not an option. Oh, you'll still get nervous and anxious, sometimes even fearful, but things/circumstances don't have the power to keep you down or force you to give up. God's got us covered!

He watches our back, lights the path ahead and surrounds us where we stand.

Psalm 139:5     You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

2 Cor 4:8-10, 16-18     We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Therefore we do not lose heart... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Press On
Karen Holland

When despair seems overwhelming -
Press on.
When a mistake threatens to swallow -
Press on.
When disappointment is weighing down -
Press on.
When darkness looms and you can't find your way -
Press on.
Whether today brings joy or brings sorrow -
Press on.

The Lord before; the Lord behind
No giving up - though hard pressed on every side.
Eyes fixed on what can not be seen
No losing heart - for the Lord has laid His hand upon me
Hemmed-in before; Hemmed-in behind.

Keep on holding on
Keep on walking on
Moving towards the goal
Reaching for the prize
Keep on pressing on
Towards eternal glory
Press on.
How can we press on? Only by keeping the Lord's great mercy and love in view!



Keep 'Pressing on' -- reaching forward ....

Keep Jesus in view --

Let His great mercy and love revive, refresh you ...

: )


Hosea 6:3
Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge Him.
As surely as the sun rises,
He will appear;
He will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.

Romans 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

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May 2, 2006
Under His Wing

He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Click to view:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/karentrustin?p=235

Lord, show each of us how to dwell in the secret place, safe under the shadow of Your wings. Help us to be still and know You are God.
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May 1, 2006
Beautiful in its Time

Click to view:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/karentrustin?p=185

Lord, touch each of us with the Son's warm kiss. Help each life unfold and reveal Your love.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.