July has several birthdays in it for our family, both Kathy and me. Yesterday was Kathy’s, today is my oldest living sis in California and it was also the birthday of one of my brothers who is gone now. Tomorrow will be my youngest granddaughter’s birthday and it was also the birthday of my oldest brother-in-law who passed a few years ago. It was a great day yesterday with the family reunion for my wife. They are a large family just as my own is. Lots of laughter and fun and tremendously good food!

Today I will head home with a grandson who is here in the valley for his own reunion on his dad’s side of the family. It will be enjoyable having a few hours on the road with him. He and I have always been close.

Today’s devotional message is striking. It said that the Word of God is tangible. Lay our hands on it and believe it to be true for us. As I began to read Ephesians 3 I read it just that way. The unfathomable love of God is just as real for us Gentiles as it is for the Jews. We are adopted into God’s family with full member rights! In these last few months, God has been increasingly helping me to believe and trust all that His Word says for it is genuinely true for each one of us. All of the lies that were in my head can be let go forever. As long as we are in the flesh, God is present giving us the opportunity to rely on His Spirit within us to squelch these lies. How I love Him for this!

Today is my wife’s birthday. I won’t say the number for that’s her stats to tell. She has been my wife for almost 40 years and I cannot begin to write here just how much of a blessing she has been to me. When God said he made woman to complete man He wasn’t kidding! I’m am most grateful!

I’m keeping this short because it’s early and my sis in law isn’t up and we’re at her place in Joseph Oregon for their family reunion. My computer needs a code for the internet so I’m writing using my phone. I’ll do better tomorrow.

I was amazed this morning as I was journaling and asking Jesus what He wanted me to know from Him for today. Without hesitation He was asking me what was on my mind (already knowing what was on my mind). Today my wife and I are leaving at noontime for her family reunion. We will be gone for the weekend. With the Celebrate Recovery Summit taking place through today and all of the nighttime activities of the week, I haven’t even been able to pack, line up help for the watering in my yard and garden, etc. It only takes a little bit of time to get all of this done, but my mind this morning was consumed with these details. Jesus quickly reminded me that I didn’t need to fret about these, He already has them in His Hands. I can let the stress within me go and TRUST.

As long as I have been on life’s journey I still have embedded in me that need to ensure myself that details are not left hanging. I truly do know that Jesus is the Master of details, yet I have to have a reminder of this. When I got His message this morning I quickly thought that I would have no problem helping someone else know to trust Jesus, but for myself, the trust is not as well rooted as my advice would be. I’m still on the trek of learning!

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that the Celebrate Recovery Summit began and a few of us were attending it virtually at our church. During the day, the leader who heads the lessons and testimonies told me the person who was to teach the lesson tonight wouldn’t be able to do it. Even though I didn’t really have time to study the lesson I volunteered to teach it since I’ve taught it in previous years. I didn’t get home last night until 9 pm because I was helping my oldest daughter use her new pressure cooker to can beans for her first time. When I got home I took out the lesson so I could prep for it this early morning. Little did I know how God was going to use my daily devotional learning to reinforce this lesson.

Gratitude is the lesson for tonight’s CR. As I simply began to read through it I first of all noticed that the Principle is 7 which is the same one from a couple weeks ago when I taught Daily Inventory. The Principle tells us to take the time each day to assess the day seeing how we have done and if we allowed God to be the center of the day. Gratitude is the outcome of learning to do this well as we learn to surrender ourselves to God ahead of a struggle so we don’t fall into a relapse of whatever sinful nature we struggle with.

The Principle ends with the statement “…to gain the power to follow His Will.” This has been a huge focus of late for me since I like so many others tend to rely quickly on my own strength and then fail again. God is wanting me to learn to surrender to Him allowing His Holy Spirit to become my strength. This step of surrender opens the door for a new reason to have gratitude. Evil has no power in the presence of God and His Holy Spirit. I’m not done learning and applying all I need to in this arena, but I am much more awake than ever before. God s so Faithful and I am so GRATEFUL!

Today starts the annual Summit for Celebrate Recovery. There are 8 of us attending it virtually at our church. This will be our 2nd year to do this. It makes gleaning from the Summit so much more profitable and affordable when we can attend this way.

Yesterday was quite the day. My brother came to help with a little project I couldn’t do on my own. Before that I had a meeting with a former administrator I mentored for her first few years of admin. Today she is a very successful admin for our state. What was totally unexpected for me was to find that a grandchild I have can attend her school. This grandchild has struggled for a couple of years and no matter what we tried, it hasn’t worked. I thanked God for opening this door.

I loved a statement which came from my devotional today. It says, “Beloved, give me your reasons for holding on to the pain. Surrendering doesn’t make you weak. It makes you brave.” There are a host of reasons we hang onto pain when God patiently waits for us to give it to Him. I’ve always, in my flesh, felt like I was just another example of what my dad would say, “Good night, give that to me. I don’t want you ruining that.” I have never been good at mechanical things. Yet, since my years of opening up and sharing my story, I often hear, “Wow, you are very brave to be able to share your story with us.” Surrender is a key action in spirit-living as a new creation. It doesn’t make us weak, it makes us able to find the miracles of God. God is so amazing in how He works!

God is making very clear for me as I continue to read Galatians, the tremendous difference between living in spirit vs living in the flesh. Our flesh demands rules and punishment when they aren’t followed. Judgment and condemnation are a natural part of the flesh. The Old Testament is filled with man’s repeated failures trying to live successfully in the flesh.

As I’m reading and rereading passages from Galatians 5 I just keep hearing and knowing that spirit-living is what I’m beginning to better understand. Spirit living believes. It doesn’t make excuses for what “won’t happen”, it believes in spite of all human circumstances that all things are possible for those who believe!

The Holy Spirit is actively working to help me overcome the doubts I’ve often succumbed to in my past. To believe all things are possible has always been a non-struggle for me with others. To believe all things are possible when God is wanting to use me–well, this has been where I have hugely doubted. So, today, I start believing all things are possible when God is using me. This kind of belief is not arrogant as the voices use to scream in my head. This kind of belief is humble knowing it is not me doing this, it is God in me making this possible. WOW!

Yesterday’s biblical lesson was Faith, and today’s is GRACE. I don’t know about anyone else, but Grace is something I have genuine difficulty putting into perspective. It is gigantic in its scope of how I am to understand God and His Gift of Jesus and The Holy Spirit. The laws of obedience to God as outlined in the Old Testament are removed. The only requirement is accepting Jesus as our Savior and hopefully, accepting Jesus as our Lord. In return, we get the Gift of The Holy Spirit so He becomes our leader in following God, not the laws prior to Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I operate so much more smoothly and freely when I have a good structure in place–schedule. Even in my free time I always have a timeframe around what I want to get done. Some would call these rules/laws I must follow. Yet, for me these are simply what I enjoy having in place. I like order and I enjoy an orderly lifestyle. Grace allows this. I do it by choice rather than by requirement. I’ve always imposed this need for order on everyone thinking life must have order to operate smoothly. Somehow, God is wanting me to see that if I impose it, it becomes a law. If He inspires it, it becomes a desire–it’s a part of Grace.

Only God can give GRACE the way He did through the Cross. However, as I read Galatians I see how He does inspire us to let go of “the rules for living I make” and allow Him to turn those rules into desires for this is His Spirit’s miraculous work within each and every believer.

The little book of Galatians is one powerful book with its message for us. Our value to God is solely based on the work of Jesus Christ at the Cross and His Resurrection. Through this act we are given the chance to be seen as holy just like God saw His Son Jesus. My part in this is believing it is true through FAITH in what Jesus did Believing it was as real for me as for any other man was my job.

The third chapter of Galatians is packed with this truth. FAITH is the key. All of those years I worked so hard trying to find value. Now I realize the value I was seeking was value to me. If I went inside of me I only saw the ugliness of the sins done to me. No works cleansed them by things I did. No song sung beautifully, no lesson taught fully, no flower bed blooming profusely was sufficient to give value. It gave momentary pleasure, but no value. I thought all I could do was keep trying. Surely God would someday notice.

My value to God was completed at the Cross. Only in FAITH can it be completed in me. I am so grateful to finally be at the place where I not only know this, but I believe it is real for me. How patient our God is helping us over miles and miles of stumbling blocks to finally see more clearly than ever thought possible. Thank you my Abba Father!

Yesterday was a wonderful day if I were to interpret it. I got done everything I was wanting to do and a couple more things I’d hoped to get done. Last night some friends were here for dinner which we hadn’t been able to connect with for a while so the day ended nicely with them.

This morning’s Bible reading in Galatians 2 brings to clarity that our value to God is based solely on our acceptance of His Son Jesus into our heart and lives. The works of man no longer determine our value to God. I need to read this every day. I am one of those people who personally needs to complete worthwhile “work” (work I feel is important to get done) in order to feel I am valuable. I use to think these feelings were from God but I’m awake now realizing they are simply my flesh. I know there are many folks who find no pleasure in completing tasks in order to feel valuable. God doesn’t measure our value to Him on either side of this.

I am a new creation with full value to God because of my acceptance of Jesus into my heart. I am growing as a new creation as I follow closely Christ’s leadership in my life through His Gift of The Holy Spirit. I know this and I want this to be lived out in my life each and every day. Praise be to God my Abba Father.

Today something which should have been understood a long time ago in my life finally became clear. As I began the book of Galatians this morning the first chapter’s footnotes (Passion bible) point out that the writer’s name–Paul means “little”. Before Paul’s conversion his name was Saul which means “significant one”. The translator gives a brief application of his name change to his life becoming significant to God’s Kingdom Work rather than the original significant work Saul was doing for man. I might have heard this name meaning before, but this time it really stood out to me.

As I was processing this while reading I was thinking how long I lived trying to be significant to God attempting to earn his approval just as Saul was doing. Little, at the time, did I understand the approval I was seeking was from my earthly father and, in reality, my own. Having been led to believe I was a disappointment in so many ways as a child I was on a trek to become “valuable” only to now know this was all a work of Satan’s manipulation and lies.

This morning I could take time to thank God for helping me quit fighting a fight that had been won so long ago! It’s God’s purpose for us to understand being “little” in man’s eyes is good, so that God can be seen and known from whatever we do for and with Him. One more great lesson to learn!