daddy4ms

For the past several years, I have chosen a word for the year.  Some of those words have been: God's power, gospel, in Christ, and abide.  As I thought about 2019, the word that I am going to focus on will be Holy Spirit.  So, this is more than just a word, it is a person.  I look forward to growing in my understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and what He does from Genesis to Revelation.  Each week I will share a few verses that are connected to the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Job 33:4) Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.   Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:11-12)

Yesterday, I had to restore my cell phone.  This is not a post about Android vs. iPhone.  However, it did cause me to think about the restoring process.  I had to hook my phone up to a computer where it was restored to its original settings.  This took a long time-several hours to be exact. After it was restored, it could then update settings so my phone is just as it was before the restoration. I was reminded of a verse from Psalm 51:12 which says: Restore to me the joy of your salvation,      and uphold me with a willing spirit. We all need to be restored back occasionally to the salvation that Jesus offers.  Sometimes we forget the cost for him to save us.  We forget his life, his death, and his resurrection.  We go through life on auto pilot and forget our salvation.  Similar to how we use our phones, we just expect them to work and when they don't, we have to restore them to the original settings. Do you need to be...

As I watched the snow fall last night and today, I had child-like excitement. I wanted to grab the kids and head to Mt. Hesston for some sledding. But not today. There is just something about the first snow. It seems to fall so effortlessly and so beautifully. It reflects light so magnificently. Someone told me that no two snowflakes are alike. Have you pondered that statement? How can you watch this beauty and uniqueness of every flake and not say, "Praise God!" Every time it snows it produces in me an awe of our Creator God. I am not sure exactly why. But I do know I serve a God who is awesome and creative. This leads to the second thing I am reminded of by the snow. It is that my sin will be washed away through Jesus' blood-not my own effort. But through Christ, my sins are washed away. In Psalm 51, we read the following: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash aw...