The word, your words, Lord, were written before hand for my learning that through patience and comfort of the scripture I would have hope. Lord, fill me with all joy and peace in believing, that I abound in hope through the power and presence of your  Holy spirit.

Holy spirit, establish me according to the Gospel and the preaching of my Lord Jesus, in accordance to the mystery. That mystery, by your grace, is now manifested in me. Jesus, the Christ, dwells in me  and I am led by his spirit, not perfectly but always purposefully.   He is the very glory of God, and Christ in me is my hope of glory.

I seek those things above where Jesus is seated at your right hand, father. I set my affections on things above and not on the things of this earth for I am dead and my life is hidden with Christ in God  and when Christ, who is my life, shall appear then I will appear with him in glory.

The God of peace himself sanctifies me completely and keeps my whole spirit and soul and body blameless at the coming of my Lord Jesus, the Christ. You are faithful, Lord, and you will surely do it.

I give thanks to you, my heavenly father, because my faith is growing abundantly  and my love for others is increasing. I pray I will be steadfast and faithful to your love this day, Father, through Christ Jesus, my Lord; that by your grace I will endure.

I pray, heavenly Father, that today you will make me worthy of your calling and that you will fulfill every resolve in me for good and every work of faith in me by your power so that the name of the Lord Jesus will be glorified in me and I will be in him according to your grace.

I do not waver concerning your promises, father, but I grow strong in faith and give glory to you! I am fully convinced that you, my heavenly father, are able to do all that you have promised.  My faith in  you, father, and Jesus, your son, is counted to me as righteousness. Faith is counted to all who believe in God, the father, who raised from the dead Jesus, our Lord, and delivered up Jesus, our Messiah, as propitiation for our trespasses and raised Jesus for our justification.

Therefore, since I have been justified by faith, I have peace with God through my Lord Jesus Christ. Through him I have obtained access by faith into the grace of God in which I am now stand and in which I rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  I have divine hope because God’s love is poured into my heart through the Holy Spirit who has been given to me.

God’s word and ed’s opinion

I know I am dependent on you, Lord. I can do nothing of divine, eternal consequence without you. I am poor in spirit and I need you every day, for in you is the kingdom of heaven. I hunger and I thirst for real righteousness, the righteousness that is in you, Lord Jesus, and you satisfy my thirst. For your flesh is true food and your blood is true drink.  Spiritually I feed on your flesh and drink your blood, and I abide in you and you abide in me.

The feeding and drinking is a spiritual matter and not a physical matter. Your word tells me that your words are spirit and life, and that it is the spirit that “gives life and the flesh is no help at all”.  I thirst and I come to you, Lord Jesus, Messiah, and I drink. I believe in you and out of my heart flow rivers of living water, the very Spirit of God!

john 15:5 Apart from me you can do nothing.

God’s word, j. Piper ideas, along w/ed’s thoughts

God intends for me to do something, namely bear fruit. Jesus promises to do for me what I can’t do for myself. If I abide in my Lord Jesus and his words abide in me I can ask whatever I wish and it will be done for me. I am to pray and to pray that God, the father, will do for me through Christ what I can’t do for myself: “bear fruit”.

“By this my father is glorified that I bear much fruit …. Fruit that will abide!”

God is glorified by my prayers because prayer is an open admission that without Christ I can do nothing, that is nothing of eternal benefit (divine value).  Prayer is turning away from myself and coming before God in confidence that he will provide the grace that I need, and the grace that those I pray for need.  So then with confidence I draw near to the throne of grace that I may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

From now on I regard no one according to the flesh. If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new. All of this is from God who through Christ has reconciled me to himself.  I am reconciled to God. For my sake, God made Jesus to be sin, even though he knew no sin, so that in him I have become the righteousness of God.

The eyes of the Lord are towards me and he hears my cries. He delivers me out of all my troubles. He is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  The Lord redeems my life. I bless the Lord at all times and his praise is continually in my mouth. My soul makes its boasts in the Lord.

If this tent which is my earthly home is destroyed, I know I have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In this tent I groan, being burdened. I look forward  during this time to being further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. God has prepared for me this very thing and given me the Holy Spirit as a guarantee.

So I am always of good courage; I walk by faith and not by sight. So whether I am at home or away my aim is to please God. The love of Christ controls me, because I have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.  And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised. From now on, therefore, I regard no one according to the flesh.

Continued from yesterday

God’s delight in his son now dwells in me and is mine. This will never end because neither the father nor the son ever end.

Their love for each other is my love for them and, therefore, my loving them AND my knowing I am loved will never end.

“Whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. I love the brethren so I know God dwells in me and his love is perfected in me.  Herein is my love made perfect, that I may have boldness on the day of judgment. There is no fear in that kind of love; but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Two day post. God’s word, Ed’s opinion and some J. Piper teaching

Lord Jesus, you have made known to me the father, and you continue to make him known to me so that the love with which the father has loved you, Lord Jesus, will be in me and you, my Savior, will dwell in me.  ( a perfect, all powerful, eternal love; a divine love)

The father’s pleasure in the son has become my pleasure. The object of my pleasure, Jesus, my Lord, the Christ, the salvation, has inexhaustible personal worth. He is never boring or disappointing or frustrating.  No greater treasure can be conceived of than the son of God.

My ability to savor the inexhaustible love and worth of Jesus grows more complete day by day and will eventually be perfected for eternity. I will enjoy the son of God with the very enjoyment of his father.

John 17

Among all of God’s messages this is the message that we have heard from the beginning: “we should love one another”. We should not be angered (hate) at the brethren because they are different or because we are jealous.

We know we have passed out of death and into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.  We know love because we know our Lord Jesus; we know he lay down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

If we have the world’s goods and see our brother in need, we should gladly, thankfully, help meet that need, recognizing how God has met our needs. We do this well by recognizing God’s love for us and training ourselves to abide in that love. As God’s love abides in us, we will love the brothers in deed and in truth.