Day 22

Freedom House Dayton Church

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Day 22

Abundant Life

October 23, 2022 • Pastor Bill Kalina

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Luke 10:27-28 He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
Jesus said “Do this and you will live” -not just get by, not just make it into heaven, not even make it through ok. He said you will “live!” I suspect we do not know what really living is until we do this. So, we should love the Lord our God with every part of us and our neighbor as ourselves, and then we will know what it means to “live.” If we love the Lord with all of us, then we can’t help but love others because God’s love will be overflowing from us. So what does it mean to love the Lord with all of us? -With all our heart, soul, strength and mind? This means we include our body (strength.) And since they are all so interwoven, I would venture to say that we can’t love the Lord with “all our heart” unless we also love him with all our strength and mind, and vice versa. This verse definitely does not let us off the hook with respect to our bodies. When is the last time, if ever, that you loved the Lord with all your strength?
But not only is it impossible to love him with all our heart if we don’t include loving him with all of our strength and mind and soul but it is also commanded. -AND it is THE commandment, the first and the most important.
I wonder if this is really what Jesus meant when he said he gives us full life/abundant life? John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Prayer: Lord, Help me to reach for you to receive your full, abundant life-giving life. Help me love you with my whole being and love others. Show me what I have placed in the way of this total surrender to you and help me let it go. I need your perfect love to help me love you.

More from Rebuilding the Temple Devotions

Day 35

November 5, 2022 • Pastor Bill Kalina • Matthew 7:7–8, 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24

Day 35 End of the road? This is not the end of the road. Your journey has just begun. Take a few minutes to review what you have learned these last 5 weeks. Talk to the Lord about it and ask him to clarify anything you are unsure about. Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Ask and He will make you holy/sanctify you. Seek to know him more and you will find him. Knock and He will open the doors of heaven and pour his Spirit out upon you. Enough said… 1Thessalonias 5:23-24 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” Pray: Lord, I offer myself up to you now, please sanctify me, fill me up with your Holy Spirit and make me holy. Remove the sin from my life, give me your heart, restore in me your image Lord. Help me to seek you with all of me and to know you and your love more every day. Help me to trust you with all of me from this day forth. Thank you for your perfect plan.

Day 34

November 4, 2022 • Pastor Bill Kalina • Jeremiah 29:11–13

Day 34 HOPE and a Future If we could just understand that He never, ever, ever, ever, wants anything but the best for us, we would not hesitate to surrender all. Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” He knows us more than we know ourselves and he knows what tomorrow holds; -and we don’t, so we can trust His will and His decisions. We forget that he wants the best, that his plan is good (the best) and so we hesitate or even outright fight him on it, or just run the other way. We didn’t learn anything from Jonah, did we? When we realize that he only wants the best and he knows us better than we know ourselves, maybe then we can let go of our own ideas and plans and walk in his. Many times, we discover that we end up loving his plan better. When we let Him take us on His journey instead of ours, we find out more about ourselves than we ever knew. Plus, often His plan would have saved us heartache or disaster because He knows what is ahead. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have hard times, Jesus told us we would, but he is with us always and he overcame the world, so our victory is coming. See John 16:33. It is not at all about what we lose or give up, in time we will always gain more than we lose. Pray: Lord, I get caught up in what I have to give up, or get fixated on what I think is best, or what I think I want. Help me to remember your perfect love that ALWAYS wants what is best for me. Help me to surrender my desires and will into your perfect loving hands. Help me to embrace your plan for me, for my life, and for my future.

Day 33

November 3, 2022 • Pastor Bill Kalina • Romans 8:31–35, Romans 8:37–39

Day 33 If You Only Knew… Romans 8:31-35, 37-39 “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” IF WE REALLY KNEW HOW MUCH HE LOVED US WE WOULD NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT GIVING UP EVERYTHING. He loves us, -not just so much that he gave his life, but he loves us enough to: • Want to spend time with us • Want the best for us • Intercede for us • Protect us • Be patient with us • Offer us more than just salvation • He loves us so much he wants a relationship with us • He wants to restore us to Imago Dei, -even though we messed that up If We Only Knew… Pray: Lord, as you teach me about the depths of your love, help me to know it, down in my heart and soul, in my being, not just in my head. Help me to know it so much that it changes me. And help me to love you back the best that I can, -with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength.