Gemini is the third Sign of the
Zodiac. Geminis are chatty and social; they love a good, heated
argument and thrive on mental stimulation of all kinds.
The
astrological symbol of Gemini is the Twins. Like twins, Geminis
often have a dual nature and are skilled at seeing both sides of a
problem.
Gemini is ruled by the Planet Mercury. In ancient Roman
mythology, Mercury (and his Greek equivalent, Hermes) was the
messenger god. He was associated with travel and transportation. He
was a communicator, quick-witted and inventive.
† But since I have been born again,
I am now under the sign of the cross,
no longer a slave to sin.
1 Peter 4:1-3
Living for God
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the
same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As
a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human
desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in
the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust,
drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
VERSE:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious
thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in
the way everlasting.
-- Psalm 139:23-24
THOUGHT:
God does know us. We cannot pretend we are something we are not
with him. He knows us - inside and out, through and through. This
should liberate us to share a remarkable degree of intimacy with
him, but most of us run from such a close relationship with our
Father. If our desire, however, is to become more like him, the
only way to be transformed is by inviting him in to look at our
hearts, our motivations, and our desires.
PRAYER:
O God, I know you are the one who "searches hearts and minds."
Yet because of the grace you demonstrated in Jesus, I am confident
that you love me. My heart is sorry for the sin I have committed,
but I am really trying to serve you in honor and purity. Please
fill me with your Spirit to enable me to become more like Christ.
In the name of your holy Son I pray. Amen.
We do not
consciously disobey God, we simply do not heed Him. God has
given us His commands; there they are, but we do not pay any
attention to them, not because of willful disobedience but
because we do not love and respect Him. "If ye love Me, ye
will keep My commandments." When once we realize that we
have been "disrespecting" God all the time, we are covered
with shame and humiliation because we have not heeded Him.
"Speak thou
with us…but let not God speak with us." We show how little
we love God by preferring to listen to His servants only. We
like to listen to personal testimonies, but we do not desire
that God Himself should speak to us. Why are we so terrified
lest God should speak to us? Because we know that if God
does speak, either the thing must be done or we must tell
God we will not obey Him. If it is only the servant's voice
we hear, we feel it is not imperative, we can say, "Well,
that is simply your own idea, though I don't deny it is
probably God's truth."
Am I putting
God in the humiliating position of having treated me as a
child of His whilst all the time I have been ignoring Him?
When I do hear Him, the humiliation I have put on Him comes
back on me - "Lord, why was I so dull and so obstinate?"
This is always the result when once we do hear God. The real
delight of hearing Him is tempered with shame in having been
so long in hearing Him.
―Oswald Chambers, my utmost for his highest
VERSE:
He knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come
forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept
to his way without turning aside.
-- Job 23:10-11
THOUGHT:
How we long for this to be our true confession. We are not yet
gold, but long to be. We are not yet fully following his steps, but
are trying. We have tried to not turn aside, but we sometimes
falter. Thank God for his grace until our intentions and desires
are fulfilled in our discipleship!
PRAYER:
Magnificent Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, I confess my
sin and my inadequacy in following your paths. Forgive me as I
recommit my life to serve you in holiness and joy. Thank you for
your grace which covers my sin and perfects in me the character of Jesus.
Through Him I pray. Amen.
Romans 7:14-25 (New International Version)
We know that the
law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
I do not understand what I do. For
what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
And if I do what I do not want to
do, I agree that the law is good. As
it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in
me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but
I cannot carry it out. For what I
do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on
doing. Now if I do what I do not
want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does
it.
So I find this
law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in
God's law; but I see another law at
work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making
me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death? Thanks
be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a
slave to the law of sin.
VERSE:
God has saved us and called us to a holy life -- not because of
anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.
This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of
time.
-- 2 Timothy 1:9
THOUGHT:
Before the beginning of time! How do you understand when that
was. God first thought of us at a time we cannot even begin to
understand! His reason for thinking of us was to demonstrate his
grace and call others to his side. Jesus has always been God's plan
and we have always been his goal. Let's make sure we respond by
living his holy life!
PRAYER:
Thank you so much, Father, for knowing me and thinking of my
needs even before there was a world. I dedicate this day, the days
that follow, to your honor as I try to live a life that reflects
your righteousness and grace. In the name of Jesus, the one who had
no sin, I pray. Amen.
Galatians 5:16-26 (New International Version)
Life by the Spirit
So I say, live by
the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
For the sinful nature desires what
is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under law.
The acts of the
sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred,
discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and
the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not
inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law. Those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions
and desires. Since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
VERSE:
As it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind
has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.
-- 1 Corinthians 2:9
THOUGHT:
Many of the things we anticipate and dream about are much less
glorious in real life than they were in our imaginations. There is
one event, however, that is better than we can imagine and beyond
our wildest dreams. When Jesus returns to take us home to be with
our Father, it will be far better than we can ask, imagine, dream
or think. Maranatha - Come Lord Jesus!
PRAYER:
Abba Father, thank you for knowing me before time began. Thank
you for crafting me in my mother's womb. Thank you for sending
Jesus to pay the price for my sins. And thank you in advance for
the day Jesus comes to take me home to be with you forever.
Through
my Conquering Savior I pray. Amen.
Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare
until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy
Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus
Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever
we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we
are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that
this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we
stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and
when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been
persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there
could be.
Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or
does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may
teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit
that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one
thing only - a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says, "Learn
of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." All I do ought to be
founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed
determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put
upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for
His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.
―Oswald Chambers,
my utmost for his highest
VERSE:
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
-- Romans 8:28
THOUGHT:
God is in our lives. He is at work right now, undoing Satan's
destructive messes and leading us to places he wants us to go. This
is true in everything we do and everywhere we go. The key is for us
to seek his purpose, to live his will. If that is our goal, then we
can be sure our God is with us every step of our way.
PRAYER:
Thank you God for being at work in my life. Thank you for not
leaving me alone to my limited best effort, insight, and choice.
Thank you for having a plan for me and being the assurance that I
can't mess that plan up if I seek your will. Thank you for being my
God, my Father, and my Partner through all of life.
In Jesus' name
I pray. Amen.
Ephesians 4:25-32 (New King James Version)
Do Not Grieve the Spirit
Therefore, putting away lying,
“ Let each one of you speak truth with his
neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”:
do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his
hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out
of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart
grace to the hearers. And do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness,
wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
VERSE:
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our
transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.
-- Ephesians 2:4-5
THOUGHT:
Of all things to be rich in, I cannot think of anything I'd
prefer the Holy God to be rich in than mercy. I know my failures,
shortcomings, sins, and transgressions. Without his mercy, to
pardon again, and without his grace to send Jesus to pardon at
first, I would be lost and without God. Now, because of his rich
mercy, my life is tied to Jesus' future and not the one I earned
for myself.
PRAYER:
Father of all grace and mercy, thank you. Thank you for being
God like you are God. Thank you for extending grace when I have not
deserved it. Thank you for giving mercy when I most needed it.
Thank you for giving life when I thought my life was doomed and
hopeless. May my wealth be in mercy and grace much more than money
and gold. Help me be more like you. In the name of Jesus, my older
Brother and Savior, I pray. Amen.
Gemini