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May 3 Unshakable Position
Trust is simply an unshakable position or stance that we take in the midst of everything we encounter in life….good or bad….things we understand…..and things we don’t understand.
Trust becomes our default when we wake up in the morning and go throughout our day.
St. Augustine: Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love and the future to God’s providence.
E.M. Bounds: Trust is faith that has become absolute, approved, and accomplished. When all is said and done, there is a sort of risk in faith and its exercise. But trust is firm belief; it is faith in full bloom. Trust is a conscious act, a fact of which we are aware.
C.S. Lewis: To trust God means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way.
E.M. Bounds: When trust is perfect and there is no doubt, prayer is simply the outstretched hand ready to recieve. Trust perfected is prayer perfected. Trust looks to recieve the thing asked for and gets it. Trust is not a belief that God can bless or that He will bless, but that He does bless, here and now. Trust always operates in the present tense. Hope looks toward the future. Trust looks to the present. Hope expects. Trust possesses. Trust recieves what prayer acquires. So, what prayer needs, at all times, is abiding and abundant trust.
Mother Teresa: God will never, never, never let us down if we have faith and put our trust in Him. He will always look after us. So we must cleave to Jesus. Our whole life must simply be woven into Jesus.
And the Bible says it best!
Psa. 118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.

Psa. 118:9 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes.

Prov. 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding

God is not going to be put in a box of man’s preconceived ideas of how things should be done. We can get past the ”WHY?”’s of life. We have all asked why wasn’t it done this way or that, and then come to the place that be put our trust in God. We can do that because we have built a relationship of trust that is built upon the knowing God’s character. The disciples learned to trust God implicitly because they came to truly know that God’s love and care for them was really what mattered in life and not the method of how He moved in particular situations.
Psa. 18:30 As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
The disciples were perplexed after Jesus died and went to heaven, but they decided to trust anyway. Why did He god? Why did he think the Holy Spirit could take His place? Why, why, why?
Webster’s definition of trust is= confidence, security; comfort, consolation 1. Assured resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship, or other sound principle, of another person; confidence; reliance; reliance.
When why tries to take control of your thoughts, remember that God can even take things that are planned for evil and turn it around for His glory.
Trust seems simple enough…It even sounds soothing, yet TRUSTING takes remembering God is faithful. He always has been, and He always will be. You can trust me on that!

One of the first things that must have run through the disciples heads over that last week leading to Christ’s crucifixion was……”WHY?” Why did things go the way they did? THis was not what they expected to have hapened. We’ve asked that question before….. In fact life leads us to questions all of the time. Right? Why did this happen that way instead of the other way……We can “why” things to death! “Why?” Is not a misguided question, but an overemphasis on “why” can lead to a misguided conclusion.
Abraham was faced with a ”WHY?” in his life…..
Noah was faced with a ”WHY?” in his life…..
Moses was faced with a ”WHY?” in his life…
Jonah was faced with a ”WHY?” in his life…
Daniel…….The 3 Hebrew children ….. Jeremiah……David…… the list goes on and on.
What impresses me about these situation that these folks faced was how they worked through the ”WHY?” to I WILL TRUST!!!!
How about the ”WHY?”s of Jesus’ lowly birth…… the crucifixion…. His ascension….. etc…

WE TRY TO SCRIPT GOD – Too much of the time we get ourselves in the hot water of disappointment, anger or frustration by trying to script for God the way we want to see Him do something or move.
Isaiah 55:8 his ways are not our ways…..
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
Deut. 32:4 His ways are right…
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

Ps. 145:17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways
The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.
We can trust in our righteous, unfailing, wonder God. His ways are perfect

30 Ask and Receive Luke 11:11-13
This scripture in Luke 11 is my very favorite when I am talking to people about the Holy Spirit. Verse 13 says if we as humans know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask of Him. It sounds like all we have to do is ask. Maybe you are like so many people I know who have asked, and don’t feel like they have received. One thing to remember is that you are one of God’s children and he loves you and He loves to give you good gfits. He is not withholding His good gifts from you. The Holy Spirit is a gift that God wants you to have. When gifts are given to you for your birthday, I’m sure you received them, opened them and began enjoying them. That is what God wants for us to do with the gift of the Holy Spirit. A little bit of simple teaching might help you if you have asked and don’t feel like you have received your prayer language. Remember these simple tips: 1) Your prayer language is not a learned language. 2) You have to use your owm mouth, lips, lungs and vocal chords to speak out the words God puts in your spirit. 3) Very often the words seem like silly syllables. Talking in a new language feels like that. 4) Don’t think to hard! Just let those silly syllables connect together and you will be speaking in your new tongue. If you’ve never asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you can pray this simple prayer right now, and be filled and begin speaking in your new tongue. Jesus, I ask you, to baptize me in the Holy Spirit, and I will speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives me the words. In Jesus Name Amen.

Acts 2:38 ¶ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
In the first verses of Acts chapter 2, we see that the time was right for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There was unity, and Jesus poured out His Spirit on all who were in the upper room. They began speaking in tongues. People were amazed and perplexed. Sometimes people today react the same way when they hear someone speaking in tongues. But Peter got up and spoke saying that this is what was prophesied in Joel 2:28 and 29. It said that in the last days, God would pour out His spirit on ALL Flesh, that is you and me! It even says on our sons and daughters and on the young and old. Everyone can be filled with the spirit. So Peter made it very obvious, that this new event was expected. And the people in Acts 2 were right in the middle something that God had planned long ago. You might have heard that this was only a one time event, and now we can’t expect to be filled with the Spirit. You might have heard that because it says in Corinthians that tongues will cease, but the same sentence also says that knowledge would cease, and that won’t happen until we get to heaven. We won’t need tongues or knowledge in heaven, but we do need them now, and Acts 2:39 says this promise is to you and your children! Take it and receive it!

This week we start a series on Pentecost, and the importance of the Holy Spirit. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an your dailyeword. Pente means 50, and the number 50 is symbolic of liberty, freedom or deliverance. Every 50th year in Israel was called the Year of Jubilee. We are looking toward the day of Pentecost as we begin talking about the Holy Spirit.. Here is your daily eword.

The Promise of the Father was given to the Church on the Day of Pentecost. This event was the sealing of the NEW COVENANT that God had established with His people. In the Old Testament, everything was done by the letter of the Law. In the New Testament we are told to be led by the Spirit, because the Spirit gives life. Among the celebrations in the Old Testament was to give a “WAVE OFFERING”. The meaning of this word is to “quiver, vibrate up and down, or to rock to and fro.” Each household was to bring 2 loaves of bread baked WITH LEAVEN. (or yeast) Passover is to have unleavened bread without yeast. Pentecost is a celebration with leavened bread. Christ the Passover Lamb of God was sinless and perfect = unleavened bread. Pentecost tells us that God will use and move in imperfect people = Leavened Bread. The 120 that were filled with the Holy Spirit were God’s “wave offering” for the people in the town thought they were drunk by the way they acted and spoke. God poured out His Spirit in imperfect people. The Feast of the Harvest of Firstfruits was part of the 7-week celebration culminating on the Day of Pentecost. This day was to be a day of rejoicing in the goodness of God. We rejoice in our God who chose to fulfill the law in Jesus and to establish a NEW COVENANT established upon better promises. Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? That is the question that was asked in Acts chapter 19., verse 2. The prerequisite for being filled with the spirit is to be born again. Let me ask you, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” I hope you have!

Today we start a series on Pentecost, and the importance of the Holy Spirit. Pente means 50, and the number 50 is symbolic of liberty, freedom or deliverance. Every 50th year in Israel was called the Year of Jubilee. It was a year to release, of liberty and freedom. Slaves were set free, debts were canceled, families reunited. Even the priests who served in the Tabernacle of the Lord for 25 or 30 years were at liberty to cease from service when they turned 50.

For the nation of Israel, the Feast of Pentecost on the 50th day after their deliverance from Egypt was a celebration of liberty from the house of bondage.

For the New Testament believer, the Day of Pentecost means liberty and freedom from the Old Covenant bondages of ceremonialism of the Law. It means freedom in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. We can now serve the Lord in the newness of the Spirit and not the letter of the Law.

Pray (James 5:16), Study (II Tim 2:15), Meditate (Joshua 1:8), Fellowship (Heb 10:25), Worship (Ps 95:1-7, Ps 100)

Saturday 26 Follow His Lead Prov 3:4-6
Probably most all of you can remember back to the day or the time when you made Jesus the Lord of your life. One of the big questions each new believer asks is, “What does God have in mind for my life?” “What does He want me to do, where does He want me to go?” Each of us had to decide to give God first priority and leadership in our lives. That is a big jump for some people. How could you trust this God who you couldn’t even see? As you have probably experienced, trust doesn’t grow in passivity. Building trust requires action. It comes by making a choice.
Where are you in your spiritual journey trusting God? Do you still have that wide-open child-like wonder in your life? Are you still excited to see how God will lead you every moment of every day? Are you in awe of the way God interacts with details of your life through divine appointments and God winks (little unexpected blessings that are God’s way of showing and reminding you that He adores you)? If we are living life our own way, we miss out on this great adventure called a life of faith. If we are somewhere in between being really hot or really cold for God, or not serving God at all, it is really easy to change that. It begins simply by telling God, I will choose to trust you, I won’t lean on my own wisdom any longer, You are the leader I want to follow. Prov 3:4,5,6

I find it interesting that God can speak to us while we are doing very natural things. Just today I was painting a wall, and as I was rolling the paint up and down the wall, God began to put thoughts in my mind about how we see things compared to how He sees things. The walls didn’t look perfect to me yet, but hopefully they would be when the paint dried. It was a reminder to me that God sees beyond the present, to see the finished product. He sees no one from the “worldly” point of view.
As a culture, we are very visual, and we look on the outside and make judgments about people or things, by their appearance. For example, we might have empathy for someone who looks sad, but have no sympathy for someone who is in incredible grief and isn’t showing it. Because a superficial glance cannot see the heart, we have to look past the external and be discerning and sensitive about what is going on in the inside of people around us. We’ve all heard the scripture about David, when he was rejected by Saul, but accepted and anointed by God through Samuel. It says in
I Samuel 16:7 that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could look past what we perceive with our eyes, and look into the heart of people? Most of the time, we would be surprised at what we saw. Most people are just like us and want to be loved and accepted just as they are. A short man can be a mighty man of valor, a tall lady can be a vessel mightily used by God, and a mentally challenged lady can be a passionate worshiper. Who would know that? God would! Let’s try to be like Him! (Eph 5:2)
II Cor 5:16-21, I Samuel 16:1-13

Today is a brand new day for us as Christians. Each day is a brand new day! Each day, we get a clean slate. No smudges at all! Are there some things you’d like to erase from the slate from yesterday or the day before? Through God’s grace, it can happen. We can come daily into His presence and receive all the fresh grace we need. How amazing! In fact, His Word reminds us to turn off the DVD in our mind of the past. We are to capture any thought that doesn’t line up with who God says we are. We can learn from our past, but we certainly don’t have to live in the past and let our future pass us by. We can let go of yesterday, grab hold of today, so we can reach our potential tomorrow.
What do you want your brand new day to look like? I’d like mine to have a gorgeous sunrise, with new possibilities, new horizons, new friendships, new opportunities, in fact, just exactly what my daughter is experiencing today. I would also like it to have order, and quiet, as well as productivity, joy and laughter and all of God’s very best. Sounds good doesn’t it. Wouldn’t it be a pleasure to lay your head on your pillow every night and realize you did exactly what you were supposed to do that day? It isn’t out of our reach. Your new day can be filled with abundance, because that is how God wants us to live. His abundant life provides for all things – like joy, and rest, and peace, and provision, and life to the fullest. Jesus came to give us abundant life, and we shouldn’t let our brand new day be any less than God’s will for us. Lamentations 3:22-24 22
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
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They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
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“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”