Fri, 1 Feb 2008 10:04:16 -0800 (PST)


Dear Kenyans,

It is a new day and we really thank God for you and for you to have taken the time to read His Word! We are delighted to have this opportunity to once again share His message of peace with you. Please read the following message again as you meditate, and have a Godly and great day.

God bless you all and may His peace be upon our country and all her people everywhere on the globe.

GraceCreates We can’t; God can.

February 1, 2008
God’s great idea
By Jon Walker

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:15-16 NIV)

God spoke my son, Jeremy, into my wife’s womb, just as God spoke you into your mother’s womb. Jeremy was “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and God ordained his days, just as he’s ordained yours. (Psalm 139:14, 16 NIV)

Jeremy was one of God’s great ideas. Like you, Jeremy was an expression of God’s blue-ribbon brilliance. He was a Matisse-like masterpiece, lovingly, deliberately, and carefully created by the One True God, the creative Creator of the universe.

My son, Jeremy, died at birth because of a destructive DNA disorder called Trisomy 18, but that didn’t diminish the value of his life, his legacy, or his significance to God. Jeremy’s every chromosome fit intricately – and for now, unexplainably to us – into God’s flawless planning.

If you grasp this – “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19a NIV) – then you’re on your way to understanding the extraordinary value of every human life, how each individual is a masterpiece created by God.

You, too, are a masterpiece created by God.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Individual lives are the expression of a pre-existing idea in the mind of God.” In other words, every human being is a unique, one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated expression of God’s incredible creativity, and as a Christian you become a unique reflection of Jesus Christ as he works through you to serve others.

The point is, God thought you up (Jeremiah 1:5), and now he lovingly thinks of you.

You are of immeasurable worth to God, and your value is not determined by your appearance or performance, or how much time or money you can contribute, or how well you sing or teach – or how long you live. The value of any container is determined by its contents, and you are a one and only, custom-made container of Uncommon Stuff – as a believer, you contain the very life of God.

Rejoice in this truth, and be set free.

What does this mean?

God’s love transforms – When you understand your value to God, you will be less likely to sin. His love will compel you to walk in the light. If you deeply and truly understood how much God loved you, how would your behavior change?

We devalue others – When we think in such terms as “You’re valuable to me as long as you’re useful” or “You’re valuable to me as long as I enjoy your company.” This reduces people to mere tools or objects of pleasure.

God’s masterpiece is on the couch – If you are God’s masterpiece, so is the couch potato in your house, or the person at church who you diplomatically describe as “contrary.” (That’s the Southerner (U.S.) in me coming out – ha!)

Jon Walker is the teaching pastor for “The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals,” and resident writer at www.GraceCreates.com. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

January 31, 2008
The forgetful servant
By Jon Walker

“All of you, serve each other in humility, for God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5 NLT)

Serving others requires forgetfulness on your part: You need to forget your own needs.

You cannot be self-centered and serve the real needs of another person. “Don’t be selfish …,” Paul says in Philippians 2:3, “Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.” (NLT)

Jesus gave his disciples an example of this humility when he stooped to wash their feet: “So during the meal Jesus stood up and took off his outer clothing. Taking a towel, he wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a bowl and began to wash the followers’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5 NCV)

Foot-washing was customary back then (not just for pedicures!) because people wore sandals or walked barefoot on dusty roads. Usually a host had his servants do the dirty chore, but Jesus saved this service for himself, “taking the very nature of a servant ….” (Philippians 2:7 NIV)

It is interesting to note that the disciples hadn’t already taken care of the dirty feet, not even slipping into a self-service scrub. Could it be they considered this task beneath their dignity?

But it wasn’t beneath Jesus.

He placed his disciples’ needs above his own – even as he approached his darkest hour.

What does this mean?

The forgetful servant – The life of a servant requires a kind of forgetfulness, the ability to forget our own needs in the process of tending to someone else’s. “We should please others. If we do what helps them, we will build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn’t please himself.” (Romans 15:2-3 NLT) Look to the needs of others, and trust God to supply your own needs. (Philippians 4:19)

Live well for others – “We want to live well,” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:24, “but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.” (MSG) Everyone we serve is someone important to serve. Do what Jesus does – “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14 NIV) How would this change your marriage (or some other family), if you began to serve another person before you considered your own needs?

Jon Walker is the teaching pastor for “The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals,” and resident writer at www.GraceCreates.com. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

© 2007 GraceCreates. All Rights Reserved. Entries (RSS).

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Erastus wrote:

Dear Kenyans,

We are very deeply saddened by the events that have taken place in our country over the last one month. We are even more concerned by the messages we have been receiving via email lately.

We feel this is not the time for bickering, but that it is a time for real reflection and prayer for the masses who are suffering in our motherland. We believe we all have family members back home who are living in tragic fear and anxiety as they do not know what might happen to them any moment.

It is therefore our appeal that we all pray for those who have lost their loved ones, are displaced, or suffering in any way as a result of the tragic outcome of the elections.

We also want to send you the following devotional sent to us by one of our friends,who has been praying with us for Kenya,in the hope that it will touch your hearts as it has touched ours.Please this is not a moment to send the kind of messages we have been sending. Let us send messages only messages of sincere love, peace and goodwill. We are one people of God. God bless you all as we pray for the return to normalcy in our beloved Kenya. With the love of Christ.

    Erastus and Theodora

 Subject: FW: January 29, 2008 - Loving Out The Fear

Daily Devotional
2008/01/29
Loving Out The Fear
by Jon Walker

All of you should be of one mind, full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. (1 Peter 3:8 NLT)

God enables us to love the fear out of one another. We drive fear from our families and friends by loving one another so supportively that every one feels safe inside the group. (1 John 4:18) This safety allows us to bring our humanity into the open, including all our pain and joy, our ups and downs, our victories and defeats.

It means you give to others the same uncommon safety Christ gives you - to be real, to be sad, to be messed up and confused, yet to be loved.

God challenges us to create a Christ-community where we love like our lives depend upon it (1 Peter 1:22) and can each "live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

We're to weep together and celebrate together, caring for each other equally (1 Corinthians 12:25-26) as we comfort and confront, warm and warn, cherish and challenge, within an atmosphere of supportive safety.

Loving the fear out of each other requires that we develop:

Tender hearts - We give support to each other because God gives us support, and we're to encourage others with the encouragement we receive from him. (2 Corinthians 1:4) In the New Testament, the word 'support' can literally mean "to increase one another's potential." (Romans 14:19 NJB) We strengthen one another by extending love, instead of fostering fear, and we do that by offering relationships that are safe and sympathetic.

Humble minds -True humility focuses on the worth of others. We understand our value in Christ, and we understand that God shapes each of us for a unique purpose.

Godly eyes - Loving the fear out of our family and friends - in fact, loving the fear out of the world - means we see others for what they can be, not for what they appear to be now. Jesus called Peter a rock when the fisherman was still acting on impulse (Matt. 16:18), and God called Gideon a mighty man of courage when he was hiding from the enemy among piles of grain. (Judges 6:11-12) God calls us to encourage and affirm each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11), seeing those around us in terms of their purpose and mission in life.

What does this mean?

God enables us to love the fear out of one another.

You can love the fear out of others, and you can allow the fear to be loved out of you.

We exhibit tender hearts when we say to one another:

§ It's OK to have a bad day.
§ It's OK to be tired.
§ It's OK to admit your mistakes.
§ It's OK to say your marriage is failing.
§ It's OK to confess your addiction.
§ It's OK to share you're scared.
§ It's OK to want a day away from your toddler.
§ It's OK to grieve a loss.
§ It's OK to doubt, to be confused, to cry.


We exhibit humble minds when we say to one another:

§ It's OK to be happy you got a new car.
§ It's OK to celebrate that you got a huge raise.
§ It's OK to joyfully tell us you lost 17 pounds.
§ It's OK to say you won the sales competition.
§ It's OK to shout "Hallelujah!" because God's presence in your life is so good. § It's OK to tell us these things because we will be as happy for you as if these blessings had come to us, and we will join you in hearty celebration.

© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.