Devotions (Page 52)

Take heart, Beloved. Take heart in the midst of your struggles and striving.Take on, instead, my burden which is light.Take upon your back My yoke… Which is easy.Take my strength and my support. I am longing for nothing more than to be your everything.Your everything!So take all of me!Take everything that is mine and make it your own!It is all your very own!!For we are one… What is mine is yours and I long for you to extend all that…

Dear Life-Spring Family, I am still trying to process the very sad news about Jade’s passing away from this earth. As a father and grandfather, I find this recent event extremely heartbreaking. I am not in Pastor Blake’s shoes and it already hurts too much. Please cover Pastor Blake and his family with your prayers. It must be excruciating for them. This reminds me of Pastor Ryan’s sermon on suffering: Job never knew the reason or reasons for his immense…

Sometimes God asks us to go to the ends of the earth, sometimes He asks us to serve, sometimes He wants us to lay our lives down. Sometimes God wants us to be still… and to pray. Last week I was reminded of how the Israelites were protected in a time of plagues. Though there was hail, locusts, blood, and even first born deaths – Israel was protected. It was not because Israel planned or prepared correctly – it was…

As I was reflecting on the past weekend, God showed me a bigger picture of what was going on in the World and in Lifespring. You see Lifespring has adopted a pattern of behaviour, when the world is in crisis, WE go to God in prayer and ASK HIM how to respond. A prime example of this was when we sowed into Compassion Canada Uganda ($6,000) & Operation Mobilization Greece ($10,000). The world was in crisis and the team responded…

Isaiah 9:6 (CEB) A child is born to us, a son is given to us,and authority will be on his shoulders.He will be namedWonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Around this time of year, one of the things we like to do in our house is put up our Christmas tree. For me, putting up the tree has always been an important way for me to get into the Christmas spirit and Christmas season. In the past, even…

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV) “Forget the former things;    do not dwell on the past.See, I am doing a new thing!    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness    and streams in the wasteland. The past could stop you from moving forward. Don’t dwell on it! Whether failure or glory. To dwell on something is to think or talk about it for a long time, and repetitively. (adapted from merriam-webster.com) This signifies a fixation or inability to…

Hey Lifespring, I really wanted to write you guys a note of encouragement for today’s devotional. I feel like the Lord simply wants to cheer you up today. To lift up your eyes and have you look upon his loving smile. To pause for a moment and hear him call your name; to receive the short and sweet, “I love you, Child!” In times of accelerated growth and excessive changes it can seem counterintuitive to slow down or to shift…

Dear LifeSpring Family, Every Monday evening I “attend” BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) with a group of about 200 men. And every Wednesday evening Dorothy attends a bible study by Precept Ministries Canada with a group of women. As I was reading the newsletter from Precept Ministries Canada’s National Director, Mark Sheldrake, it reminded me of Pastor Gabe’s sermon this past Sunday. When we are well equipped in God’s Word we will recognize when Truth is under attack. As Christians, we…

This past Sunday we continued our series on suffering. Below are 4 additional purposes in suffering – its not a formula – but sometimes God needs to get our attention or adjust our character for the assignment he truly has for us. Take a moment and read through the 4 purposes. Just prayerfully ask the Lord to speak to you as you read it – to grab your spirit’s attention if He wants to speak to you through it. Purpose…

2 Peter 1:5-11(NIV) 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness;…

So when Jesus had received the sour wine,He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:30 (NKJ) Someone said, ‘Consider the work of Calvary. A perfect work, perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.’ One of the last utterances of Jesus on the cross was: ‘It is finished.’ In Greek, it’s just one word: tetelestai. But it’s the perfect tense of a verb that means to do something perfectly. It could be…

Lifespring is called to be the Huios (mature sons) and in a Kingdom Family. As we pursue the purposes God has has for our individual lives and the church family, something we will not be able to avoid is suffering and trials. Jesus, who was the example of the huios suffered much. He felt hungry, was anxious, oppressed… yet He was found to have no sin. Jesus shows us how the mature son is to align and endure suffering when…