The Alphabet Prayer, Part I

(I dremt I should write this in my blog. Every other line rhymes and I did here lines A - K. Next week, I will do the rest.)

All my hope is in You

For You, O Lord, do great things.

Black may be the night

But You will show up in the morning.

I will call unto You right now,

And You will answer me.

Darkness covers the Earth

But You are the light of the world.

Everyone has gone astray,

Send your Word to guide us.

For You alone, I give praise,

For You are my salvation,

Give praise unto the Lord always

Even in rough times.

He alone can save you,

Just trust in Him.

I love You, Lord, and praise You,

With all my heart, I worship You.

Jesus, Master of my soul,

I give you everything, even my life.

Kind and loving are You, Lord.

And your precepts are always right.

The Recompense of the Reward, Part II

            I was going to end last week with the recompense of the wicked, but I just happened to look at the devotional I was reading and the one for October 7^th said this: “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (Heb. 11:26)

            I nearly choked on my breakfast! I was wondering if I should add anything to my little Bible study and I guess this was the Lord’s response.

            The point of this Scripture makes is that Christ gives us a different kind of reward than the wicked get: we get the reward of heaven with Him. Yes, you must suffer here below and go through many trials, but we have a wonderful reward awaiting us. We can be like Moses and esteem the reproach of Christ greater than the pleasures and treasures of Egypt. The reproach means the blame, shame or disgrace we have to go through. And that’s what reproach means according to Webster and summarizes what we sometimes experience when rough things happen; things that happen that our not our fault, but happen anyway. But we will have a payment someday too: the recompense of our reward in heaven if we hold fast to our faith.

            Lord , we pray for your help and strength right now. We can’t go through this on our own! We need your grace and guidance. Please give us the fruit of the Spirit and the peace of your presence in our hearts. May your Holy Spirit fill us with love for you and for others also. In Jesus Name, Amen.

The Recompence of the Reward - Part I

I was sitting in a classroom the other day co-teaching with a teacher who mentioned one of the students' vocabulary words was recompense. She said she didn't know anything about it, but I knew it was from the Bible. I thought about it and looked it up in a concordance and the next day when I saw her again, I told her about it. She said some of her students had told her that it was in the Bible too.

When I looked it up, I noticed there were many references to this word in God's Word. Here is one reference I particularily liked and felt the Lord wanted me to write about it: "For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation..?"(Hebrews 2:2-3)

This interesting passage in Hebrews emphasizes the need for salvation. Every sin and every folly of mankind has a consequence or "recompense of reward" which also means payment. The reward here the author of Hebrews is talking about is the "wages of sin". (Romans 3:23).

Think of all the sins of our society and culture today; all the violations of God's law which are myriad and increasing every day. Without a revival soon, we aren't going to have a great future especially as a country. Marxism and Feminism are being promoted in our schools every day - I've seen it first-hand - and Christianity is being trashed. What will be the consequences? If things don't change, it will be the payment of sin. Yep, that's it. Economic hardship, loss of jobs, loss of homes, more taxes and regulation and more social decay will be our future.

Just read Isaiah chapters 1-4 and you can see the same pattern. Its a society that has rejected God over and over again. The only salvation is not in politics or in philosophy. These have always proven to be a dead end... I've seen the same falsehoods rehashed over and over again over the last 40 years and they've never worked. They just get repackaged and recycled for each new generation.

Next week, I will talk about the positive side of the "recompense of reward" so stay tuned...to be continued...

Lord, we thank you for your mercy and dying on the cross for our sins. We will never forget your love and grace and how much you did for us. We're glad we can avoid the "recompense of reward" and be able to have all those sin debts canceled by your Blood! In Jesus Name, Love, Laura