Are you in a dark place today? Tell us about it. We want to pray for you.

During a very dark time in my life, this is what the Lord said to me:

During the long winter months, when nature appears to have lost all its beauty, life still flows deep within its darkest recesses. The trees appear naked and dead without their leaves and blooms. The ground seems hard and bare without the beauty of flowers and grass. But, in reality, life is ever flowing, ever-present.

It flows in the sap that is deep within the trees. It stirs within the seeds of flowers yet to bloom. Both are quietly at work, waiting for their appointed time to be awakened and spring to life.

Sometimes My people also must endure their long winter months of travail when their fruit seems to have withered and their branches seem bare. But deep within their roots, My Spirit moves with eternal life.

All may seem dark, lost, and devoid of life and beauty, but, in such a life lived with Me, My work still goes on.

Sometimes it must be that My precious ones must endure the darkness in order to see the Light. Then when My Light shines on them, they come to life and begin, once again, to blossom and bear fruit.

Our lives are one – yours and Mine. Therefore, all that is of My nature must pass into yours, if so be that your roots have grown deep within My Son. So, take courage.

Allow My Life to flow through you, especially in the darkest of times, and then all will be yours – love, joy, peace, comfort, hope, strength, power, trust, healing, patience, humility, wisdom, and victory. I watch over you to care for and bless you.

If you are in a dark place today, take heart, take refuge.  God loves you more than you can see and more than you can understand

Questions: If you are struggling in a dark place, tell us about it. How can we help you? Why does God allow us to experience these dry times of our life?

About the Author Lynn Mosher

There are certain mountains only God can climb. Ascend them and you’ll end up bruised and embarrassed. Stay away from them and you’ll sidestep a lot of stress. These mountains are described in the final phrase of the Lord’s prayer, “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” A trio of peaks mantled by the clouds. Admire them, applaud them, but don’t climb them.

It’s not that you aren’t welcome to try, it’s just that you aren’t able. The pronoun is thine, not mine; thine is the kingdom, not mine is the kingdom. If the word Savior is in your job description, it’s because you put it there. Your role is to help the world, not save it. Mount Messiah is one mountain you weren’t made to climb.

Nor is Mount Self-Sufficient. You aren’t able to run the world, nor are you able to sustain it. Some of you think you can. You are self-made. You don’t bow your knees, you just roll up your sleeves and put in another twelve-hour day … which may be enough when it comes to making a living or building a business. But when you face your own grave or your own guilt, your power will not do the trick.

You were not made to run a kingdom, nor are you expected to be all-powerful. And you certainly can’t handle all the glory. Mount Applause is the most seductive of the three peaks. The higher you climb the more people applaud, but the thinner the air becomes. More than one person has stood at the top and shouted, “Mine is the glory!” only to lose their balance and fall.

“Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” (Matthew 6:13, KJV) What protection this final phrase affords. As you confess that God is in charge, you admit that you aren’t. As you proclaim that God has power, you admit that you don’t. And as you give God all the applause, there is none left to dizzy your brain.

From The Great House of God
Copyright (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001) Max Lucado
Used by Permission

Question: Since we weren’t made to run the Kingdom, what should our role be within the Kingdom?

About this Author: Max Lucado

Does someone need the comfort of your home? Here is an online Bible study .

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mathew 25:40).

After leaving the home of His childhood and the companionship of His family, we have no record of Jesus having a home of His own. In fact, while explaining the cost of following Him, He said, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

And yet we know of one home where He loved to visit, where He felt free to “drop in” unannounced, and where He deeply loved His hosts. It was in this home that He sought quiet refuge just days before His trial and death.

After Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem upon a young donkey, His disciple Matthew records, “He…went out of the city to Bethany where He spent the night.” Did Martha, Mary and Lazarus talk quietly that night with their precious Jesus, guessing that this may be their last visit with Him before the horror to come? Did Martha have hot soup and warm bread for the family supper?

What welcome would you have given Jesus? What food would you have prepared? He no longer walks physically among us, but He boldly taught that we can serve Him just as did His Bethany hosts: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”

Hospitality can call up visions of elaborate meals or richly furnished guest quarters, but Jesus said we can be Bethany hosts whenever we serve others with an attitude of humility and joy, whenever we make our homes, whether large or small, places of refuge for those who need comfort. Why not use this Holy Week to invite “the brothers of Jesus” into your home and thus experience the presence of God?

Lord Jesus, open my eyes to those around me who need the comfort of my home. May I be generous in my hospitality and loving in my care.

Questions: Why do you think hospitality is such a scary word to many women? How can you build simple hospitality into your life in the next few weeks?

About the Author Marilyn J. Ehle

“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”" Matthew 26:36-38

Transparency is an oft – overlooked element in our growing closer to Jesus Christ. Intimacy with the Lord requires our full, humble, and honest openness before Him.

Jesus Himself was a wonderful model of openness as He dealt with His disciples. For instance, we read in today’s Bible verse that, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus shared with the disciples His anguish over His upcoming crucifixion and brief separation from God the Father.

Knowing that the sins of the entire world were about to be cast upon Him, Jesus grieved, even to point of near death. Here was God, clothed in human flesh, being completely honest, open, and forthright about His emotions. This is how Christ would have us react to Him.

A proud, arrogant, egotistical, self – sufficient Christianity bristles at the thought of such transparency. Why should I burden God with this when I can handle it myself? I’m just not going to deal with God about this. Such thinking and behavior goes against everything for which God created us.

However, God cherishes and honors a humble, contrite spirit from someone trying to be himself or herself before the Lord. Confess sin, worry, doubt, and fear. He already knows all, but your willingness to intimately share with Him all the details speaks volumes about the bent of your heart.

Question: Where do you find it easiest to have “intimacy” (private time) with God?

About this Author: Charles Stanley

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35

Step 5:  Be willing to plant stakes in the ground

When we recognize there has been hurt in our church, we must be willing to take a stand to say what will be different from this day forward. So often we experience hurt within the church walls and we retreat for awhile, only to return to find a new vision or a new program. A “forgetting what is behind” attitude can spring up without ever acknowledging why we got to the hurtful point we did.

If there is one thing we have learned throughout history it is that history repeats itself. The struggles with pride and accountability, with tending the seeds of our heart and not recognizing our enemy are day-to-day struggles. Unless we recognize where we have been in hurting times and plant some stakes that serve as markers to check us when we tend to spiral into the same patterns, we have not taken the opportunity to mature and move ahead in our journey with God as a church. Ask yourself

“Am I willing to acknowledge my part and take steps to prevent a repeat?”

When conflict threatens your heart and your church, as it will, seek first to be intentional about raising the prayer banner. This invites the Spirit of God to be at work in the lives of those involved and minimizes our tendency to lean on our own understanding. It moves us toward recognizing afresh our utter dependence on God. God alone is the hope of the hurting church.

If you are part of a church that is experiencing hurt and conflict, confusion and disorder, God gives a measuring stick to determine what value system is at work.

Two kinds of wisdom:

James 3:13-17 talks about the two kinds of wisdom. One that does not come from heaven and one that does. The one not based on heavenly values is centered on earthly, unspiritual values with envy and selfish ambition at the core. Not hard to spot.  The trademark of love will be missing as well.

The wisdom based on heavenly values will be pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

This higher value system can be reached by applying these five steps based on the foundation of love. It’s love that comes from the heart of our Father God to our own individual hearts. Then the world will see our trademark and glorify God in Heaven.

Tend your heart wisely!  The state of your soul, the health of your church, and a watching world needing Jesus depends on it.

Father God, I thank You for my church. I pray that You will work in me and through me to display Your love and Your wisdom within my church. Help me to do my part to keep my heart pure, peace loving and considerate so that You will be honored in this community by our trademark of love. In Jesus’ powerful name I pray, amen.

Question: What has stuck with you most from this series on healing a hurting church?

About this Author: Gail Rodgers

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1

Why does God want your body? Why doesn’t he say, “Offer your spirit”?

It’s because without your body you can’t do anything on this planet. In eternity, you’re going to get a new, improved, upgraded body but while you’re here on earth God says, “Give me what you’ve got!” He’s just being practical about worship.

You’ve heard people say, “I can’t make it to the meeting tonight but I’ll be with you in spirit.” Do you know what that means? Nothing. It’s worthless! As long as you’re on Earth your spirit can only be where your body is! If your body isn’t there, neither are you!

In worship we are to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices.” Now, we usually associate the concept of sacrifice with something dead, but God wants you to be a living sacrifice. He wants you to live for him!

However, the problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar, and we often do that. We sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” on Sunday, then go AWOL on Monday.

In the Old Testament, God took pleasure in the many sacrifices of worship because they foretold of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. Now, God is pleased with different sacrifices of worship: thanksgiving, praise, humility, repentance, offerings of money, prayer, serving others, and sharing with those in need.

Real worship costs. David knew this and said, “I will not offer to the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24, TEV). One thing worship costs us is our self-centeredness. You cannot exalt God and yourself at the same time. You don’t worship to be seen by others. You deliberately shift the focus off yourself.

When Jesus said, “Love God with all your strength” (Luke 10:27), he was pointing out that worship takes effort and energy. It is not always convenient or comfortable, and sometimes worship is a sheer act of the will – a willing sacrifice.

Question: What is the cost of true worship?

About this Author: Rick Warren

Please open your Bible and read Psalm 8.

When we stop and think about the majestic God who created us, and meditate on who this God is, does it fill us with an amazed sense of awe? Or, as the title of a famous book says, is our conception of God “too small”?

Nicky Gumbel gives us a pertinent illustration. There once was a child sitting at the table drawing a picture. Her mother asked her what she was doing. She replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” Her mother said, “Don’t be silly, no one knows what God looks like.” The child thought for a moment, then replied, “Well, they will know by the time I’ve finished!”

We do this, don’t we? We come up with our own conception of how we think God is. Although we are actually made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), we often want to try to suggest the opposite: We try to remake God in OUR own image. We futily try to make God fit into our preconceived notions of how He “should” be.

But when we decide what God is like based on our own preconceptions, what we end up with is a “god” that is just like me. We end up with a tame god. A “god” that never disagrees with me, never challenges me to excel, never tells me that I’m wrong. But this is also a god who is “too small” … lifeless, powerless, and totally unlike the God we know from the Bible! This tame God is not the one who created you and I and the heavens and the Earth.

Even lifelong Christians can become complacent in their ideas about what God is like. For example, I have encountered God, but am I encountering God? God is greater, grander, more amazing than we will ever fully comprehend. R. C. Sproul writes that “People are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”

The question is: Are you encountering God or admiring yourself? Have you been seeking to know who God really is? Or have you been admiring yourself in the mirror?

Can you pray along with the Psalmist, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:9) and ask Him to show you a small glimpse of His greatness today as you seek to encounter Him?

Question: Have you been encountering God or admiring yourself?

About this Author: Darren Hewer

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition of vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

Psychologists tell us that with the birth of each new baby, family dynamics drastically change. The same is true – and perhaps to an even greater degree – with the addition of each new son- or daughter-in-law. This is no more dramatically illustrated than at holiday celebrations.

This was vividly brought home to us the first time our youngest son and his wife joined us for Christmas. We had come down to the tree in the living room that morning in our pajamas and robes, read the beautiful Christmas story out of the Bible, and then opened our gifts. We enjoyed a traditional breakfast (traditional to our way of thinking!) and relaxed over coffee.

Finally we cleared away the breakfast dishes and shards of wrapping to begin preparations for Christmas dinner. The aroma of turkey, sweet potatoes and homemade rolls soon filled the house and by late afternoon, we were more than ready to eat. But where were our son and his wife?

When they finally appeared at the decorated table with its variety of dishes, we were stunned. They had changed into the finest of holiday clothing – velvet dress for her and shirt and tie for him. The rest of us definitely looked like the poor relatives in our casual, relaxed pants and sweaters!

This was only the first of “cultural” changes we would face in our growing family. Each new person brings his or her traditions into the holiday setting and adjustments must be made by all. We find that flexibility and commitment to making everyone as comfortable as possible are keys to holiday celebrations that are reflections of the true meaning of Christmas.

The words of the Apostle Paul have great meaning as we gather to celebrate: “consider others better than yourselves”

Lord Jesus, you made the ultimate cultural adjustment when you left the heavenly kingdom to become a human being. The Creator God chose to be one like His creation. Help me be “adjustable.”

Questions: What cultural challenges have you experienced in your family holiday celebrations? What worked? What didn’t work?

About this Author: Marilyn Ehle

Who would look at the cross of Christ and say, “Great work, Jesus. Sorry you couldn’t finish it, but I’ll take up the slack.”?

Dare we question the crowning work of God? Dare we think heaven needs our help in saving us? Legalism discounts God and in the process makes a mess out of us.

To anyone attempting to earn heaven, Paul asks, “How is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? ….What has happened to all your joy?” (Galatians 4:19, 15).

Legalism is joyless because legalism is endless. There is always another class to attend, person to teach, mouth to feed. Inmates incarcerated in self-salvation find work but never joy. How could they? They never know when they are finished. Legalism leaches joy.

Grace, however, dispenses peace. The Christian trusts a finished work.

Grace offers rest. Legalism never does. Then why do we embrace it? “Those who trust in themselves are foolish” (Proverbs 28:26, NCV). Why do we trust in ourselves? Why do we add to God’s finished work?

But the truth is, we don’t. If we think we do, we have missed the message. “What is left for us to brag about?” Paul wonders (Romans 3:27, CEV). What is there indeed? What have you contributed? Aside from your admission of utter decadence, I can’t think of a thing. “By his doing you are in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Salvation glorifies the Savior, not the saved.

Your salvation showcases God’s mercy. It makes nothing of your effort but everything of his. “I—yes, I alone—am the one who blots out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again” (Isaiah, 43:25, emphasis mine).

Can you add anything to this salvation? No. The work is finished.

Can you earn this salvation? No. Don’t dishonor God by trying.

Dare we boast about this salvation? By no means. The giver of bread, not the beggar, deserves praise. “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).

It’s not about what we do; it’s all about what he does.

Question: What is the only thing we can rightly boast about?

About this Author: Max Lucado

And all of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5, TEV)

Real servants maintain a low profile. Servants don’t promote or call attention to themselves. Instead of acting to impress and dressing for success, they “put on the apron of humility, to serve one another” (1 Peter 5:5, TEV).

If recognized for their service, they humbly accept it but don’t allow notoriety to distract them from their work. Paul exposed a kind of service that appears to be spiritual but is really just a put-on, a show, an act to get attention. He called it “eyeservice,” serving in order to impress people with how spiritual we are (Ephesians 6:6, KJV; Colossians 3:22, KJV).

This was a sin of the Pharisees. They turned helping others, giving, and even prayer into a performance for others. Jesus hated this attitude and warned, “When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1, CEV).

Self-promotion and servanthood don’t mix. Real servants don’t serve for the approval or applause of others. They live for an audience of One. As Paul said, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

You won’t find many real servants in the limelight; in fact, they avoid it whenever possible. They are content with quietly serving in the shadows.

Joseph is a great example. He didn’t draw attention to himself, but quietly served Potiphar, then his jailer, then Pharaoh’s baker and wine taster, and God blessed that attitude. When Pharaoh promoted him to prominence, Joseph still maintained a servant’s heart, even with his brothers, who had betrayed him.

Unfortunately, many leaders today start off as servants but end up as celebrities. They become addicted to attention, unaware that always being in the spotlight blinds you.

You may be serving in obscurity in some small place, feeling unknown and unappreciated. Listen: God put you where you are for a purpose! He has every hair on your head numbered, and he knows your address.

Questions: Can you think of people you’ve known who have embodied the servant lifestyle? What made them able to humbly serve God?

About the Author: Rick Warren