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Monthly Archives: July 2013

Priceless treasure

06 Jul

Priceless treasure

1 John 2:27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

I have always been very open about my struggles with memory. Some mornings I use a website to search for a word on my heart. That search many mornings leads to quality time in my favorite Bible. Some mornings I simply park, and read, and study in it. My Bible is full of highlighted passages, notes, and my own words that God has shown me while spending time there. I have had this Bible for over five years, and there is nothing that can compare to the special place it holds in my heart. I left it at church one time, and almost had a panic attack fearing I had lost it forever. Even in my struggles with my memory, it just always seems that I can find what I need when I need it most there. It is truly like there is a direct connection with God in this Book, because there is; He lives between those pages and He knows my love for him and his word. This particular Bible is beyond special to me, it is a part of me.

John is speaking to the Holy Spirit that dwells in us; that Spirit gives us discernment to spiritual things. John was speaking of the anti-christ and the deceivers that are working in the world. There are many that preach a false gospels today in many varieties. Today they seem to be luring people away with the promises of an easy and blessed life, but not preaching the power of the convictions of sin. John is urging you to use the discernment that is given you to see this as a lie; to practice the truths that are found in His Word; to steer away from false teachers; to abide in the Spirit and dwell in His presence in His Word and truth. John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Christ was speaking to the disciples before he was to suffer for all of mankind at the Cross. He told them of the coming blessing of the Holy Spirit that will be given to all believers in Him. That is Christ’s Sprit that comes to live inside you; he comes to bless you beyond description for your time here. He comes to open up His Word to you like never before. He will take your Bible and communicate to your mind through your heart. You will begin to see Him as never before and be drawn back into His Word daily for another word from Him. You will be drawn to share with others what He has shown you. You will begin to look back at your own Bible and all the notes and highlights in it where He has spoken to you. It will become a priceless treasure to you too.

 
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Posted by on July 6, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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I stand amazed

03 Jul

I stand amazed

1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (ESV)

In my favorite study Bible, the commentary on this verse says, “John stands in amazement of God’s love. But the greater amazement and appreciation  is for the fact that God’s love is expressed to human beings, that Christians are included in His family. God loves all believers, the weak as well as the strong.” I too stand amazed at God’s love for me; for Him to love me when I ran headstrong against him for so much of my life. When I turned my back on him for the pleasure of sins and selfish pursuits. When I still fail him ever single day still, even with a heart for Him, there is failure continually; in all my failures He still loves me, and you. He has a love we cannot comprehend, for the world only teaches to love back what is loved first. We are not taught to love those that do not love us; Christ loves the saint and the sinner.

When you begin to grasp a small percentage of God’s ability to love you in all your failures, it produces thankfulness and love for Him in your heart. That outpouring of that love begins to change to a life for Him and all that it will produce. You begin to live your life differently than you did before you knew Him. Those around you notice; some are drawn to the change He has produced in you, others display their denial of Christ through their attitudes towards Him in you. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. You will find that many you once called friends, now are denying Christ before you. The world as a whole is not inherently good; the world is full of sin, and the world will turn it’s back on Christ and you as a result of your devotion to Him.

But the promise that you in your faith hold onto is found in the next passage. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. John has just spent the prior verses speaking of living our lives for Him and the pursuit of righteousness. We will have to stand before Him one day; will we stand uprightly and know that we tried our best to live our lives for Him? 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. We will be asked to give an account of our lives; did we live for the pleasures of this world, or were we so amazed at the love He bestowed upon us, (while we were still sinners), that we dedicated our lives to the pursuit of obediently following Him?

 
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Posted by on July 3, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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The Inevitable Penalty (borrowed)

02 Jul

The Inevitable Penalty (borrowed)
Matthew 5:26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
As I sat down this morning I saw the opened devotional from yesterday; one that struck a deep chord inside me. Mr. Chambers spoke of the power of the conviction of sin through the Spirit; he spoke of giving our lives up for Christ completely; he spoke of the desire of God to make us more like his Son at all costs. So much that is being preached in the pulpits today is lush Christianity; lost is the work of the Holy Spirit in the convictions of sin and all that come with it through a repentant heart. You cannot claim the promises of heaven and continue to live in sin today. An assurance of Salvation is a heart that desires to flee from that sin that ensnared us for so long. What do you believe? Are you submitting to those convictions, or are you denying that wrenching inside you to continue in that temporal pleasure of sin that has eternal consequence? Mr. Chambers wrote:
“There is no heaven that has a little corner of hell in it. God is determined to make you pure, holy, and right, and He will not allow you to escape from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit for even one moment. He urged you to come to judgment immediately when He convicted you, but you did not obey. Then the inevitable process began to work, bringing its inevitable penalty. Now you have been “thrown into prison, [and] . . . you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny” (5:25-26). Yet you ask, “Is this a God of mercy and love?” When seen from God’s perspective, it is a glorious ministry of love. God is going to bring you out pure, spotless, and undefiled, but He wants you to recognize the nature you were exhibiting— the nature of demanding your right to yourself. The moment you are willing for God to change your nature, His recreating forces will begin to work. And the moment you realize that God’s purpose is to get you into the right relationship with Himself and then with others, He will reach to the very limits of the universe to help you take the right road. Decide to do it right now, saying, “Yes, Lord, I will write that letter,” or, “I will be reconciled to that person now.”
These sermons of Jesus Christ are meant for your will and your conscience, not for your head. If you dispute these verses from the Sermon on the Mount with your head, you will dull the appeal to your heart.
If you find yourself asking, “I wonder why I’m not growing spiritually with God?”— then ask yourself if you are paying your debts from God’s standpoint. Do now what you will have to do someday. Every moral question or call comes with an “ought” behind it— the knowledge of knowing what we ought to do.”
God’s goal is to make you more like Christ; period. All that He places on your heart requires that action that Mr. Chambers speaks of; the knowledge of knowing what we should or should not do. That response will determine your walk with God; that obedience either draws you closer to him, or lets you drift away if you deny it. Let the Spirit do His work in you. Respond with pleas for strength to fight the temptations of sin, the heart of forgiveness, the heart of compassion for others who struggle too. Let go and let God do his work in you. Your life will never be the same.

 
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Posted by on July 2, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Do you believe?

01 Jul

Do you believe?

John 12:44-47    Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

I heard a really good sermon yesterday on Christ’s deity; of how manifested as God in the flesh. Of how He is a part of the Holy Trinity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We simply cannot wrap our minds around this concept, but yet do we believe this concept? Is not faith’s foundation in believing what we cannot see, or even possibly understand? Is the pride of our lives so great, that if we cannot explain it, we will not believe it? That is a deadly pride, the root of all sin, the basis on which there is a separation of heaven and hell. You cannot profess to believe in Christ and not understand that he walked this earth that He created in human form. He humbled himself and came to earth to pay your debt that you could not afford. He died for you to live eternally, with Him, in paradise.

Christ was entering into Jerusalem in this passage; he was coming into town with the knowledge he as going to die the most excruciating death imaginable. He was coming into town to the praise and worship of men; those same men that would soon turn on him and crucify him in very short time. He boldly claims his deity; he understands what this means to those that do not believe. But he also tells them they must believe to be saved; for He will return and judge the world when He comes the second time. John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 12:48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. Are you prepared to kneel before God on that day of judgement? Are you living your life now in preparation for that day? Your sins, past, present, and future can be forgiven by the One who came to save the world; you must believe and grasp that understanding of Him as your Lord and your God.

I guess I don’t get it how someone doesn’t believe. I, even at my worst and greatest sin stages of my life believed in Christ. I chose to run from God and pursue the temporal pleasures of sin, denying the eternal price I would pay for those decisions. I blatantly lived my life against all that I knew to be true. I was captured by the enemy, deep behind enemy lines. How could I say that I believed, and continue to live in sin? I didn’t really believe I guess. For if I had understood what awaited me in hell as a result of my life, I would have stopped and pled for it immediately. Please understand you are not guaranteed tomorrow, but you are guaranteed forgiveness today. It is never to late……until it is.

 
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Posted by on July 1, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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