‘Blessings’ Archive
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
» May our Father be filled with great joy as He considers your pure, sincere heart and your active faith, and may He bless you with a rich blend of spiritual gifts perfectly designed to reconcile many souls to Himself through Jesus while gently guiding you to abundant life … both here and in the life to come.
» I’m praying that your faith … your friendship … and your fun will fashion today into a fabulous experience for every fortunate soul who finds themselves in your company. May you give them your best … may you give Him your best … and may you take some time for yourself to do something you love.
» May Jesus’ presence in your heart be warm and bright … peaceful and filled with promise. May you be encouraged and comforted that the crucified and risen King has come to live victoriously in you.
~s
Tags: crucified, heart, Jesus, joy, king, peaceful, reconcile, Short Blessings, spiritual gifts
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Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Thank you for your patience over the past three months. Steve to Earth is created in my spare time, and I haven’t had much of that for quite a while. I’ve also struggled with the direction I want to go with the site in 2007. I would appreciate your prayers in that regard. Simple is usually best, so I’ll kick off 2007 with three short blessings from recent e-mails to friends.
» May our Father’s work and your role in it always be your focus … your vision … your heart’s purest desire … when the path ahead is crystal clear … and when every veiled inch ahead of you requires a great step of faith.
» May your future be filled with many bridge-building opportunities. In your most difficult relationships, may you … and those you struggle with … discover that your desire to honor Jesus by helping others is much more important to you than competing for the right to control the relationship. May our Father lead you to all the right bridges, and may He give you the courage to cross each of them … with grace … and dignity … fully trusting in Him.
» May our Father bless you with spiritual shepherds who will hold your heart … feed your soul … and nurture your faith … in a spirit of compassion … encouragement … and love … as perfect imitators of the Great Shepherd … Jesus.
~s
Tags: bridges, compassion, faith, focus, future, Jesus, shepherds, Short Blessings, vision
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Tuesday, November 7, 2006
They say that less is more. Here are three short blessings from e-mails I’ve written to people I love.
» May Jesus transform your weaknesses into the sources of your greatest ministries.
» May you feel the Holy Spirit this week. May He strengthen and comfort you as you live to honor Jesus. May you thrive in His friendship the way our Father intended.
» May you trust Jesus with your future and your heart. May you never doubt His love. May He work through you in tender and powerful ways to reconcile lost and hurting souls to His soul.
~s
Tags: comfort, friendship, Holy Spirit, Jesus, less is more, reconcile, Short Blessings, strengthen, transform, trust
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Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Originally written for the first wedding anniversary of one of my friends, I’m sharing this blessing on Steve to Earth today in honor of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, which they celebrated on Friday, September 1, and our family celebrated all weekend.
Mother and Dad, I am so proud of you, and I love you very much! I consider it a privilege to bless this wonderful milestone in the lives of the two people who are responsible for me being here … the two people who loved me enough to introduce me to Jesus … the two people who continue to love me deeply and unconditionally even on the days when I don’t look very much like Him.
May your celebration be attended and blessed by the Groom … the Savior … the Supreme Example of Love. May your relationship be honored by the bride … the church … the spiritual body of Christ.
May your hearts be filled with hope for the future. May your souls overflow with renewed faith and abundant forgiveness. May your spirits be refreshed with joyful and happy song.
May all your fatigue … all your frustrations … and all your failures give way to the blessings of the Comforter … your Friend … the Holy Spirit, and may each fruit that He produces grow firm and tender and sweet in your fertile hearts.
May you find peace in His indwelling presence. May He be a Pleasant Inhabitant … a Tenant bearing generous gifts … a Perfect Communicator of our Father’s precious will … a Flawless Glorifier of our Lord Jesus Christ … a Gentle Companion who fills every corner of your souls … and leaves no vacancy for any other spirit.
With great joy, may our Father bless each beautiful day you spend together … until His Spirit and yours are joined for eternity … in the highest and holiest of marriages.
May you celebrate your marriage a little every day, and may your daily celebrations inspire and give hope to a weary world.
This is my prayer for you … because of His great love for us.
~s
Tags: 50th wedding anniversary, bride, celebration, eternity, faith, future, gifts, groom, hearts, Jesus Christ, love, marriage, milestone, relationship
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Saturday, July 29, 2006
May the road that lies before you lead you to many friends who look like … live like … and love like Jesus.
Friends like Barnabas … who give the Paul in you a trusted companion in ministry … who give the John Mark in you that coveted second chance … whose every heartbeat encourages you to become every good thing our Father created you to be.
Friends like Ruth … who cherish spiritual formation more than safety … who value truth more than heritage … who seek the Living, Forgiving God more than the gods of this world.
Friends like Jonathan … who treat you like a king when that great honor belongs to them … who protect your welfare even in the face of great danger … who choose to knit their souls to your soul rather than to wealth, power and fame.
Friends like Jesus … who reach deep into your heart and free the hero within … the hero they have always believed you can be … who love you just the way you are with a transforming, life-changing love … who forgive you when they have the power to destroy you.
May your little corner of the world be filled with many friends who love Jesus much more than they love you … for then you will possess the richest treasure this world has to give. May you discover and delight in all the riches of that priceless treasure.
May you find all your friends in Jesus … and may they find Jesus in you.
~s
Tags: Barnabas, companion, friends, hero, Jesus, Jonathan, king, Paul, Ruth, spiritual formation, treasure
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Monday, June 19, 2006
May Jesus rain gently on the fields where you are planting the seeds of His Gospel, and may our Father provide healthy, sturdy growth in abundance. May His Holy Spirit sustain that growth, and may your harvest be plentiful.
May your heart drink deeply of His refreshing reign, and may your soul be flooded with warm, bright sunshine. May the windows of your heart glow with His radiant light, and may each soul that you teach fall completely in love with the God Who calls Himself “Love” … and may you fall in love with Him … completely … all over again.
May He touch your lips with sweet grace … and may His voice and yours be as one … as you share the Good News of Jesus Christ … the Son of God … with a world of souls who desperately need to hear the Good News that Jesus can give us each what we need the very most … forgiveness of our sins.
May all of your plantings flourish … may all of your harvests multiply … only in Him.
~s
Tags: calls Himself "Love", drink deeply, flourish, forgiveness, Gospel, growth, heart, planting, soul, sweet grace, windows of your heart
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Saturday, June 3, 2006
Today, as you’re planting in our Father’s garden, may you be keenly aware of the qualities of the seed you bring with you. May it be firm … healthy … bursting with life … prepared to flourish and to multiply.
As you speak and interact with your world, may you find rich, receptive soil … vibrant, seeking souls … and willing minds, eager to accept the package of life that is born in your pure heart and graces your tongue and your lips.
May your words encounter no congestion and no opposition from competing thoughts and distractions in the minds of those you teach. May the seed you scatter make firm but gentle contact with deep, fertile soil.
May you see the stains and the strains of planting as rewards … souvenirs … of honest work done well.
May our Father hear your heart’s cry for His blessings on your plantings, and may He respond without delay, quickened by His deep love for you and your loyal stewardship of His abundant gifts and blessings. May your harvest be bountiful … and more beautiful than all the flowers of the earth combined.
May you find the Lord’s richest blessings in doing what you love.
~s
Tags: abundant harvest, fertile soil, flourish, garden, multiply, planting, seed, souls, souvenirs, stewardship
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Three more mini-blessings. I love to end e-mails with short blessings like these:
» May Jesus be all the Heaven you ever need or desire.
» May you lose yourself and find yourself in the ever-increasing, ever-creating Jesus.
» May your heart seek the pure heart of Jesus on Saturday … and again on Sunday … and … well … every day from now on … and may you find what you seek.
~s
Tags: find, find yourself, Heaven, Jesus, lose yourself, mini-blessings, pure heart, seek, Short Blessings
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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Three mini-blessings from e-mails to friends:
» May you have a great … Christ-honoring … weekend.
» May you metabolize your injury into art.
» May you feel the firm but gentle grip of His hand on your shoulder … His sweet breath that gives you life … His joy that you’ve chosen to spend your life introducing others to Him. May He fill that Jesus-shaped hole in your heart, and may you find the completion you’ve always longed for … only in Him.
~s
Tags: breath, completion, gentle grip, Jesus-shaped hole, joy, metabolize injury into art, only in Him, Short Blessings
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Monday, May 1, 2006
May what you do today set the stage for many wonderful ministry opportunities in the future. May your resistance to temptation give courage to the heart of a stranger … a classmate … a friend … for many years to come.
May your “no” to Satan be an echoing “yes” to Christ in your own life and in the lives of all the people you encounter. May your daily spiritual walk be a pleasant and uplifting song to those who observe you … sweet music that is savored and joyfully sung … even when your paths are separated by great spans of time and many miles.
May you pause today to remember the importance … the beauty … the magnitude … of a moment that honors the Living God.
May the lonely find solace and friendship in your voice and in your smile. May the desperate discover hope through your consistent faith. May the outcast find acceptance in your impartial love.
May Jesus turn your weaknesses into sources of great strength. May your critics be at a loss for words. May they marvel at your relationship with your Maker … at the story He is writing through you.
Many years from now, in some unsuspecting moment, may someone remember the working faith they saw in you today. May they call you aside and request your spiritual leadership, and may you bring Christ to the party in a way that no one else can … in a way you never could have imagined.
May the spiritual seeds you sow today produce an abundant harvest at just the right point in time according to our Father’s perfect plan and His sovereign will.
~s
Tags: acceptance, Christ, courage, harvest, Living God, party, spiritual leadership, spiritual walk, strength, unsuspecting
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