Kelli Kidd Jones, My Sis-in-Law

I'm very excited and honored to share that a blog post that my sis-in-law, Kelli Kidd Jones, wrote recently has been selected to be featured on Destiny in Bloom... a blog collaboration of 10 amazing Christian women. 

With being selected as a guest writer the only thing they asked of her was to help drive traffic to the site on Monday (tomorrow, Labor Day) the day Kelli's post is published. The website does not make any money by people visiting it is just one of the measurable ways to see how her post is received by readers. 

So I am asking all of my friends and family to please show your support for my sis-in-law, Kelli, tomorrow (MONDAY, LABOR DAY) by going to the Destiny in Bloom website www.destinyinbloom.com and reading her post. It would be even more helpful if you would leave a comment on the post (and try not to be too obvious that I begged you to do so :)). Again, this is how they measure if the post/writer was successful and could be the basis as to whether Kelli gets asked to write for them again! :)

On a personal note, I know I'm biased, but Kelli really is an excellent, gifted writer. Please check it out... remember www.DestinyInBloom.com - Kelli Kidd Jones...Thanks!


PS Check out Kelli's blog at http://KelliJonesBlog.com

Songs in the Night

But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
Who gives songs in the night,
Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth,
And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’ Job 35:10-11

Night is the season of terror and alarm to most men. Yet even night hath its songs. Have you never stood by the seaside at night, and heard the pebbles sing, and the waves chant God’s glories?… We need not much poetry in our spirit, to catch the song of night, and hear the spheres as they chant praises which are loud to the heart, tho they be silent to the ear—the praises of the mighty God, who bears up the unpillared arch of heaven, and moves the stars in their courses.…

When thou thyself art low, it is well to sing of the fountain-head of mercy; of that blest decree wherein thou wast ordained to eternal life, and of that glorious man who undertook thy redemption.… What!… canst thou not sing of that raptuous moment when he snapt thy fetters… and said: “I am the Breaker; I came to break thy chains, and set thee free”?… Go back, man; sing of that moment, and then thou wilt have a song in the night.…

Beloved, there is another thing of which we can sing more sweetly; and that is, we can sing of the day that is to come.… Christian! if thou art in a night, think of the morrow; cheer up thy heart with the thought of thy Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon, World's Greatest Sermons)
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

God’s Whisper and Thunder

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?
Job 26:14 [NKJV]

Job in thought passes through the universe [Job 26:7–13].... He passes to the confines of light and darkness, rides on the wings of the wind, discourses of the clouds, skims the mighty surface of the sea. All this, however, he deems as the outskirts of God’s ways. It is but a whisper compared to the mighty thunder of his glory and power. If this is a whisper, what must the thunder be!

Perhaps we know something more of the thunder of his power than Job could, because we have stood beneath Calvary and seen Jesus die, and He is the wisdom and power of God; yea, we have witnessed the exceeding greatness of his power, according to the working of the strength of his might, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.

Who of us can fathom or understand the power of God? But what a comfort to know that it is an attribute of his heart. God is not power, but He is love, and his love throbs through and commands his power. Be reverent when you kneel before the great and mighty God; but believe that all his power is engaged on the side of the weakest, neediest child. And more: cease not to wait upon God until He endue you with his mighty power, for service and for daily living. (F. B. Meyer, Our Daily Homily)
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

Kingdom Joy

...for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 [NKJV]

No human system can generate the dimensions of fullness and fulfillment God’s kingdom life bring us. The present passion so many of us feel, to drink of “all the fullness of God,” is a quest for the way the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus as King in our daily life and living. There are no religious substitutes for the reality of this order of life.

As Paul wrote here, he was laboring with a problem, for everywhere he turned he found opponents to the message of Christ’s kingdom joys. His most ardent enemies weren’t Roman soldiers or Roman government, but a strange breed of religious diehards. They knew the true God but hated the refreshing liberty of Holy Spirit-filled living Paul was preaching. They kept imposing ritual requirements related to the Mosaic code—issues concerning certain “eating and drinking” stipulations. Paul wasn’t arguing for undisciplined living but simply for unsaddled souls! In effect, he says, “God’s kingdom isn’t in the trappings of tradition, but His rule brings His right ways (righteousness), His mighty ways (peace) and His bright ways (joy).” Let’s all open full to such fullness—and to His kingdom’s expansion in our souls.
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

Purpose - Part 2

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you. Jeremiah 1:5 [NKJV]

God knew us before we were born. He has prenatal perspective on the life He created to serve Him and to bless the world. The Father set us apart with the intent that we would fulfill a distinct purpose in His great plan. Later in this same chapter, the Lord says, “I have put My words in your mouth… I am ready to perform My word” (vv. 9, 12). God does not just call us to serve Him; He also fills us with His Spirit so that the outcome is guaranteed before we even start!

God has created us for Himself, and His plan transcends our lifetime. Revelation 20:6 promises that after Christ’s return, we “shall reign with Him a thousand years.” We are a precious treasure uniquely created to be an instrument of blessing in the Father’s service.

As we go through the day, rest in the knowledge that from before our conception, God’s love for us is assured, our purpose has been established, and the power to attain the goal is promised.
Hayford, Jack; and Middlebrook, Sam, Living the Spirit Filled Life, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1992.

Purpose - Part 1

I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Philippians 3:12 [NKJV]

We have not chosen Him but He has chosen us (John 15:16). The Lord has personally selected you. Wrapped up in the very word for church is the idea of our being called out. He has called us out of our own plans for our lives, and out of the confusion of our past. Then once He calls us out, He calls us in, into the excellency of His Kingdom, into communion with Him, and into His plan for our lives.

It may sometimes seem that the plan lies just around the next bend in the road of our spiritual walk with Christ, just beyond our reach or not very well defined. But we “press on” so that we may grasp God’s plan for us—the plan that God had in mind when He “grasped” us!

Keep moving on! His plan is there for you! And it is in His plan that you will find your firmest purpose, deepest fulfillment, and highest joy.
Hayford, Jack; and Middlebrook, Sam, Living the Spirit Filled Life, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1992.

A Glorious Contrast

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 [NKJV]

In the first part of the text we have three terms: wages, sin, death. In the second part we have three terms: a gift, God, eternal life. They stand over against each other in each case. Wages—a gift; sin—God; death—eternal life.

What are wages? Wages are earnings. A man has a right to wages. Wages are the equivalent to work.… What is a gift?… Something that cannot be earned. That which no man can claim as a right.

Sin is considered here as an individual act. It is the act of a free agent. It is not merely missing the mark, it is willful missing of the mark.… If wages be the payment for work, sin is the work that earns the payment. God puts Himself over against sin.… The man who is in the thought of God is a man who is incapable of reformation and whose religious observances would in themselves be sinful. Therefore, God put Himself over against sin. Sin—God.

What is death?… Death is that which every man chooses in the moment when he yields himself to sin. By that yielding, he chooses death, disintegration, corruption, ruin.… Over against death, our text places eternal life. Paul climbed to a great height one day and he … wrote of “The generation of the age of the ages.” In the light of that suggestion we see them coming, age after age, out of the fathomless being of God, profound in mystery, glorious in strength, new ages of which we can but dream in the highest moments of our spiritual illumination. That is the gift which God gives a man without asking him for a certificate or any pledge for tomorrow. (G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit)
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

Christ Is Our Redeemer

...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,... Romans 3:24 (NKJV)

The figure of redemption is very simple, and has been very frequently used in Scripture. When a prisoner has been taken captive, and has been made a slave by some barbarous power, it has been usual, before he could be set free, that a ransom price should be paid down. Now, we being, by the fall of Adam, prone to guiltiness, and indeed, virtually guilty, we were by the irreproachable judgment of God given up to the vengeance of the law; we were given to the hands of justice; justice claimed us to be his bond-slaves for ever, unless we could pay a ransom, whereby our souls could be redeemed. We were, indeed, poor as owlets, we had not wherewith to bless ourselves. We were as our hymn hath worded it, “bankrupt debtors”; an execution was put into our house; all we had was sold; we were left naked, and poor, and miserable, and we could by no means find a ransom; it was just then that Christ stepped in, stood sponsor for us, and, in the room and stead of all believers, did pay the ransom price, that we might in that hour be delivered from the curse of the law and the vengeance of God...

When Christ redeemed his people, he did it thoroughly; he did not leave a single debt unpaid, nor yet one farthing for them to settle afterwards. God demanded of Christ the payment for the sins of all his people; Christ stood forward, and to the utmost farthing paid whatever [sic] his people owed. (Sermons Of C. H. Spurgeon)
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

Don’t Go Down

So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3 (NKJV)

It was a sublime answer. Below was the Plain of Ono, where Nehemiah’s foes awaited him. Let him once descend into it and he would become their easy prey; but he withstood their fourfold solicitations by considering the greatness of the work he was doing and the responsible position he was called to fill. Other-worldiness is the best cure for worldiness.

Oh, children of the Great King, let us pray that we may know the grandeur of our position before Him; the high calling with which we have been called; the vast responsibilities with which we are entrusted; the great work of co-operating with God in erecting the city of God. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ! Called to sit with Christ in the Heavenlies!... How can we go down—down to the world that rejected Him; down to the level of the first Adam, from which at so great cost, we have been raised... No, it cannot be; and as we make our choice, let us look to the living and ascended Christ to make it good. Put your will on his side, and expect that the energy of the power that raised Him from the dead will raise and maintain you in union with Him. For “your life is hid with Christ in God.” (F. B. Meyer, Our Daily Homily)
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

Unity

I was talking to a friend on Facebook last night, and we were talking about one of the enemy's main devices: to isolate us and make us feel as if we're the only one going through a particular set of circumstances in our life. If satan can isolate us and make us feel like we're the only one struggling with conflict, alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, etc., then we will have lost our witness and be made ineffective in our relationship with Christ.

Several of you don't make community with Believers a priority in your lives. Not that I'm any better; I've been there, done that. I speak from experience when I say the enemy can easily "cull" you from the herd and harrass you unbelievably. Let me encourage you to make yourself vulnerable to a person or small group of persons you can trust. Then live in community with them so you might be encouragers to one another. (Hebrews 10:25) Check this out:

Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

Loneliness is one of the primary sorrows of our fragmented and disjointed society today. We all feel it at some time. We may even be overwhelmed and immobilized by its destructive effects.
Our Lord, who designed us, never intended us to be alone. We were intended to live in community with one another. And He provided a lifestyle which, if embraced, eliminates the power of loneliness.

Yet our fear of loneliness causes us to move with herd mentality—following the masses, flowing with the tide of societal and cultural dictates. The fear of loneliness often generates personal compromise of our spiritual, ethical, and moral dreams and aspirations. We want to follow Jesus with all our strength, but we fear isolation and alone-ness as we move against the tide.

To attend us on our “against-the-tide” way, our Lord calls us to caring, loving unity with His children. If we will walk in the unity of the Spirit as our Lord enjoins, our obedience will remove the sting of isolation from our lives.
Hayford, Jack; and Middlebrook, Sam, Living the Spirit Filled Life, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1992.