Justin Hyde, pastor of Christ Church in Brenham, Texas, shares how family devotions work in his home.
- Routine
- Intentional Evenings
- Time to Play
- Mealtime
- Cleanup
- Bible Time
- Questions and Answers
- Family Prayer
- Bedtime
- Explicit vs. Implicit
April 2010 Archives
Before God initiates any change or personal transformation in us He will, first, refresh us. In fact, our first encounter with God is a renewing and refreshing encounter. This is an amazing fact that is seen throughout the history of God's relationship with those who call on Him.
The book of Acts opens with the instruction to the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit would "come upon them". These were the same people who had either betrayed Jesus or kept their distance from Him when He needed them most. They had failed God and their Messiah. Yet, when the Holy Spirit anointing did come on them they were not greeted with shame and rejection, nor were any performance demands made of them. Instead, the Spirit simply filled them with joy, with spiritual power, and with a divine understanding of God's plan for their lives. All of this in the first encounter!
In Psalms 23 we see the loving Shepherd anointing His lambs with oil and filling their cups to overflowing. This is the image of the Shepherd we all need get into our hearts. The Shepherd greets each lamb with tender love. He desires only to pour His anointing oil on us, to refresh and renew our souls, and to revive and heal us from our weariness and pain. When we understand the depth of God's love for us, we will also understand that every encounter with our Shepherd is a refreshing encounter. We cannot come to God without being touched by His Spirit with love and grace - a grace that refreshes and renews our souls and revives our spirits. Any time and every time we are touched by the Shepherd we will be refreshed.
Our religious performance tendencies make us afraid to come to the Shepherd. We are convinced that we will be shamed in His presence or that He will demand some act of contrition or impossible religious duty before He will bless us. Yet, all the evidence points to this reality: that the first thing you will experience in His presence is the refreshing anointing of His Holy Spirit. He will bless you before He ever starts changing you.
I pray that we all may have a perspective change. That we will learn to call on Jesus, the Great Shepherd of Our Souls, for the refreshing anointing of His Spirit. That in His presence we may be renewed and refreshed. That we may come to know and experience this great truth: every encounter with God is a refreshing one. He bids you come!
Pastor Richard Casteel
John and Debbie, pastors from Phoenix, Arizona, are in Haiti helping to direct Foursquare's relief efforts.
Foursquare In Haiti from Grace Chapel on Vimeo.
Get updates from Foursquare team members in Haiti and information about how you can join in the work there.
One of our missionaries in Haiti (Elizabeth) has a blog. She's been posting updates, photos, videos, and prayer requests. Check it out at www.YouMeandHaiti.com.
Here is a recent video she posted.
From Pastor Richard's sermon on April 11:
The word that saves is right here,as near as the tongue in your mouth,as close as the heart in your chest.It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God--"Jesus is my Master"--embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
Romans 10:8-10 (The Message)
From Pastor Richard's Easter sermon:
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.Ephesians 3:14-21 (New Living Translation)
