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Monthly Archives: August 2015

The Good far outweighs the bad

31 Aug

The Good far outweighs the bad

Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.

If you are seeking to live your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, reading Matthew chapter ten is a tough read. Jesus was sending out the twelve apostles, and warning them of what they were to face as his disciples. Warning them of the calamities to come, but assuring them of the comfort of God’s sovereignty covering their every step. Jesus was telling them of how they would be persecuted, but promising them not to worry, for God would even give them the words to speak at the minute they were needed most. I can assure you, every pastor has been in those shoes unprepared for a sermon, and became just a mouthpiece for the Holy Spirit that Sunday. Sermons that spoke directly to what someone needed to hear, but the preacher likely can’t recall what he said. I can attest to you, humbling cannot begin to describe the weight of that feeling of being used by God.

Jesus is giving the apostles all this bad news, but in the midst of it, even more good news. He was assuring them that God has a control over his creations that we cannot fathom. He can direct our paths, put words in our mouth, protect us from evil, but even the little creatures are not apart from his control. Free Will is a gift from God, but does not mean we ultimately control all that we face in life. Our limited minds (by his design), cannot comprehend the complexities of Free Will intertwined with God’s Sovereign control. Do not let Satan use the complexity of it to divide your faith in it. If you say that you believe the Bible, believe the complexity of it; 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. How great would your God be if you had all the answers?

All that you are facing in life is filtered through God’s hands; by allowing it or designing it, the purpose of it is to draw you closer to him or show you your need for him. Understanding that statement greatly simplifies your life. Understanding that truth greatly increases your faith, and allows you peace in the midst of life’s storms. Being a Christian in today’s world is becoming more likely you will suffer persecution but, understanding that God is allowing that to happen, gives you strength to face that storm in faith, and to testify of him. You faith must grow in preparation of, and then it will increase as you face these trials. Jesus told the apostles, 27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.” Jesus loves you so much that he is allowing you to go through whatever you are facing. Jesus loves you so much that he knows it can draw you closer to him. Jesus loves you so much that he wrote of his promises in the midst of his warnings in Matthew ten. The good outweighed the bad.

 
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Posted by on August 31, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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Live Like You Are Dying

29 Aug

Live Like You Are Dying

Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

I have been praying about a study I am working on for the India trip; a study on the Spiritual Disciplines, such as prayer, meditation, and fasting. All of these have a spine of the measure of your heart of love for your Lord. Without the heart of love, these disciplines become meaningless; they become another religious duty to falsely self-fulfill your salvation. A heart not born out of love for your Savior, is a heart that becomes hardened to the drudgery of the duty of religion. We fulfill these duties along with Sunday’s, and seemingly think we are headed to heaven while we live the other six days a week for all this world offers. Is that the picture that the Apostle Paul wrote of above? That is the measure of a heart for Christ; nothing else matters unto death except to live for the One who gives you eternal life. To consecrate your life for the One who provides the opportunity for eternal paradise with him. To live every aspect of your daily life pursuing righteousness; to seek to abide by the law and to live for the rewards that await you with him. To not focus on the troubles of the day, to not worry about the future, to live for the joy found in him, the security found through him, and the peace the world cannot provide. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Paul was in prison writing this epistle; Paul didn’t know whether he would live or die when writing this letter to the church at Phillipi. Paul only sought to point all that God put around him to their need for Jesus, to share the hope that lied within him. To show that even prison, nor the fear of death, could weaken his faith. Paul understood God was letting him be there; God had a design for him there; God was using him mightily there to encourage a people group previously unreached. 12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Everything about this world, every day in this world, Satan tries to steal away your joy as a Christian. Every bad thing that comes your way has the ability to take your eyes off heaven. Many blame God, many question why to God, many fall victim to Satan’s attack and run from God due to some trial in their life. Why…….because they have not sought God, pursued God with a heart for him through the understanding of his Word. They have not prepared themselves for the spiritual warfare they have entered claiming Christianity. They have not sought God through the spiritual disciplines with a heart borne out of their love for Him. They have not consecrated their lives to him and lived like Paul; lived like they were dying, seeking to make every day count for the one who gave them eternal life.

 
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Posted by on August 29, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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Evil Among Us

27 Aug
Last Days

2 Timothy 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

These days, just when you think it can’t get any worse, someone in society does something so evil it shocks you. Your mind can’t process the evil that abounds among us, within us. Your mind can’t understand the ability to commit seemingly senseless acts of murder, taking another life, holding no value on life whatsoever. Yet we kill thousands of unborn children each day, but try to push those stories underground, for they are committed under the ruse of choice, and dare I say free will. Can we here in a land of freedom begin to grasp we may be suffering the judgement of God as he loosens Satan’s leash upon us? Can we begin to grasp we must be judged for our immoral behavior and blasphemies upon God’s Law when we go directly against God’s design of marriage? Can we begin to understand that Satan is peaking, before his ultimate fall?

I cannot stress the urgency of your faith, or lack of it, in the days in which we live. I cannot stress that I feel we are entering the last days before Christ’s return. I feel this Christian persecution is going to continue to rise, evil will continue to shock, and God is using all of this to show you the need for him. He is using Satan’s tactics against Satan, and this evil that shocks shows us our need for a Savior from it. You must understand that man is evil at heart; we were forever lost in sin through the Fall of Man as descendants of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Everyone is lost, doomed to hell, until they hear their need for the Gospel, and simply repent and believe. Today is the day to live your life for the next one. Today may be your last day; it may be your last day to share with someone you love the Gospel. Today may be your last day to make an eternal difference in someone’s life.

Matthew 24:31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near–at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

Do not be shocked at the evil that abounds. Do recognize the signs in the evil of your need for a Savior, and the call to live your life as a disciple of his, shedding his light on a very dark world.

 
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Posted by on August 27, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

Be strong and very courageous

25 Aug

Be strong and very courageous

Joshua 1:5-9 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

How would you like to be Joshua; the one who stepped into Moses’ shoes? The Lord is speaking to Joshua, commissioning him for the will of God for his life; to complete the mission of leading Israel into the promised land God had told them of. Great battles, and great victories would come as God would lead be their leader, but Joshua was to be God’s courageous leader of His people by following what Moses had done before him; by following the Law, it’s precepts, and being obedient to what God told them to do. God knew the size of the task he was laying before Joshua, and his commands to be strong and courageous were spoken to him three times in only a few verses. God was laying the foundation of understanding the importance of the Law (the Bible as we see it now), and the understanding that God is with Joshua (and us) in all that we do. I love how one of my study Bibles puts this: “Most difficult of all will be the middle responsibility-namely, to make the Lord’s instructions (Hebrew Torah, or now the Bible) integral to who he is and what he does, meditating on them constantly so as to do them.”

All your decisions in life are made by what you have put into your mind. If you are putting self-help nonsense that builds up the false teaching of pride, you will believe and fail in your own inability. If you are following the teachings of the world and it’s selfishness, you will collapse into a heap of pity one day when you realize nobody else thinks as highly of you. “You are what you believe” the Godliest man I know once told me. What do you believe? Do you believe and follow the power of God found in his Word? Do you spend daily time searching him out with your heart in prayer and meditation of his scriptures? Do you seek the things above found in his Word, or do you seek the temporal pleasures of this world? Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

My prayer for you is to see the promise of God to Joshua; the same promise of God to you thousands of years later. He will not leave you nor forsake you, but you must see the importance of seeking Him. He is not at your beckon call as some go-to fairy of desire; He is the Lord over all of creation that will guide you through this life into the next. Your heart for him is shown by your desire for him. This heart is either rewarded eternally, or suffer the same. If this life is preparation for the next, why would you not spend time in the Book that teaches you how?

 
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Posted by on August 25, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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Just Do It

24 Aug

Just Do It

Luke 8:21 But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus had been talking about the power of the Word of God. He had been talking about how those that hear it light up the room. Well, hearing the Word of God places his light inside of you; you change and begin to exhibit his light, and that light is visible to others. If you hear it, feel the tug of it, and do not respond to it, what you have been given will be taken away. (Luke 8:18) God’s Word stirs your heart, soul, and mind to the point of action. The Bible is called the Living Word of God. There is no other book written that can change your life, but change is a verb requiring action. What does the passage above say? Hear the word of God and DO IT! God is going to convict your sin, meaning for you to flee from, or to put it simply, stop doing it. But, that stopping is the action of doing the word of God. God is going to stretch and grow your faith by taking you out of your comfort zone asking you to do something you know is a measure of your faith. These acts of Christianity may earn you the title “Crazy Christian or Jesus Freak” but they are you being obedient to what you clearly know God is laying on your heart. James 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.That stepping out of the boat like Peter did to walk on the water with Jesus is where your faith grows by leaps and bounds. You light becomes brighter and more people see the level of your faith and he uses you to get to them.

Being a disciple does not come at a cost. Those that once where close to you may abandon you because of your changed life. You will loose friends, and even family may see you differently. There will be some who rest in their comfortable religion, and never step out of the boat with Jesus. Their boats in religion are dark and sinking if they feel salvation is found church attendance and living good lives. All you can do is to pray for God to tug at their hearts and them to respond (do it); to become a measure of light and faith to those that surround them. God may be using you to reach those friends and family.

What have you done to openly exhibit your faith recently? What have you not done because of what others would think of you? What word from God have you denied you even heard because it would cause you to be ridiculed? He is asking you to have the faith in him to not care what others think; to only care what He thinks. He is wanting to show you how real he is when you show him how much you love him and do what he has laid on your heart (do it). Stepping out in faith is where you find out God is real, God is personal, and mighty, and loving, and can do things that you simply cannot. He holds the universe in his hands but can also orchestrate the smallest details in your life, when..you just….do it.

 
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Posted by on August 24, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

I believe, but……

20 Aug

I believe, but……

Mark 9:23-24 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

How many times do we say that? How many times do we inject the “disclaimer” word “but” into our prayers and pleas before God? The father of the stricken child was not using that disclaimer, but pleading for help to strengthen a weakness he admitted to. He was admitting to the doubt that was in his heart as a result of the sin in him. Doubt is a product of sin, doubt is a product of sin in all of us and Satan uses that doubt as a very powerful tool against our faith. Our faith gets beat down by the world easily; Satan is the limited ruler of this world and it takes a true heart for God to battle the devil and his schemes. Spiritual warfare is on a plain that we cannot see, but feel the effects of, and God may grant us discernment glimpses of understanding of it at times. It is very real, goes on every day, and the more you live for this world and not the next, the less you understand of it.

This world has beaten me down this year. I have battled continued anxiety and depression on a level as never before. The demands of the world stole away my joy as the pressures of it wore me down this summer; mentally and physically drained to the point of exhaustion, robbing me of my quiet time with God. The Lord recently granted me a glimpse of understanding related to this year and my trip to India this fall; an understanding of the battle that raged on inside my head and a plain I could not see. The teaching curriculum is the spine of my testimony, quiet time alone with God. Satan has sought to destroy, but God has allowed his attack to strengthen. Spiritual disciples (quiet time in prayer, his Word, meditation, and fasting) are truly a matter of the heart; how much do you love God? The measure of your love is the measure of your practice of the spiritual disciplines.

If we plea anything to God, but use the disclaimer “but” in the prayer, aren’t we injecting our unbelief before Him? We can be using it as our escape route, or as a proclamation of our unbelief . We could really be saying to the Lord, “we don’t know if you can really do this”. Is God angered at those blasphemy prayers of limited faith? He knows your heart, mind, and words before they become audible; he knows the end before the beginning of your life; he knows your last breath time-stamp; he hold in his hands all the universe that he designed, sustains, and controls. “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Mark 9:23 Jesus openly discloses to his disciples in this passage the power of faith, prayer, and fasting. Jesus is encouraging them to practice those spiritual disciplines just as we must today. What are you doing to show your level of love of God to him? Where is the “but” in your prayer life…….

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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Is the boat comfortable?

10 Aug

Is the boat comfortable?

Revelation 3:15-16 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Yesterday I watched as my pastor followed God’s call on his heart in stepping down from the church of 25 years; a church and pastor that God used to change my life eternally, and countless other lives that he came into contact with. I saw the pain, I saw the fear, but I also saw the obedience and security of knowing God was laying this step of faith out for him. Yesterday I began to reflect on how many that I know that God has moved (including myself) out of their comfort zones. How many God has opened and closed doors for; how many have taken steps of faith they would have never taken had God not prodded them to move. It is so easy to become comfortable, so easy to rest in religion, so easy to rest in grace and mercy, so easy to become lukewarm……… God is never going to leave you in a position of comfort, for he knows you will become lukewarm……. God is going to continually lay out steps of obedience, a stairway to heaven if you will; each step of obedience takes you out of your comfort zone and one step closer to God. Each step is seemingly larger than the last, but in each step your faith grows and those around you see your faith and are encouraged by it. God is continually at work in each believers heart and life, and using both to effect those that witness the hearts of obedience to the One they call Lord.

Revelation has it’s warnings to the seven churches culminating in this very visual stern warning to the church that is comfortable and lukewarm. “You turn my stomach to the point of vomit,” He says. There is no point of your life your faith should not be growing; is there evidence of growth, comfort, stagnation, or even backsliding? Is not backsliding even preferred? If you are cold, the heart will feel the need for repentance and U-turn. The puffed up heart of comfort sees no need for change. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. There are so many sermons, so many paths in this passage, but we are called to live out our faith, to abide for each day, to emulate Christ each day sharing our faith, growing more like him for our hearts desire is to serve him each day. Every good thing comes from above, and in those good times we become comfortable. Jesus warns us in this passage of his chastening, and promise to those who will repent. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Christianity is a relationship and not a religion; it is a daily walk with the Lord and not fulfilling the religious duty of church one day a week. It is an abiding relationship with your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer of your life and all that you know. It is a walk for just today, a call to concentrate on just today, not worry about tomorrow, but a hearts plea to be used for kingdom work wherever He places your feet today. Pray a prayer this morning to be used by God, and taken out of your comfort zone to where only he is when you step out of the boat like Peter did on the sea with Jesus.

 
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Posted by on August 10, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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What news are you reading this morning?

04 Aug

What news are you reading this morning?

Matthew 5:18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (ESV)

What is the Bible to you? What does it mean to you? Is it a history book, a book of prophecy, a storybook, an outdated book not relevant to today, a book that is evolving…..it is hard for me to pen how some people view God’s living Word to us. The Bible is the story of mankind, creation, fall, and redemption. The Bible has a way to speak to our hearts that none other can because no other book has been written by God to do a work in our hearts. The Bible is a book of absolute truths, and the scripture above confirms that. The Bible is not adaptive such as different religions teach their “bibles” are; we cannot conform or deny what we find in there to fit our current situation. We either conform to the truth found there, or we deny them in any variety of ways, denying truth and denying God. We will all answer, we all will bow, we all will give an account for how we treated God’s Word on Judgement Day.

The Bible is a book of prophecy, a book of the proof of God’s sovereign hand over his creation and the plans he has to restore it to paradise, free from sin. The Bible tells us all what our future holds as a measure of our faith in it. How we live our lives is a reflection of it. The passage before this scripture of how truth will be fulfilled, tells us how to live in the understanding of that revelation. Jesus was beginning his great Sermon on the Mount here. 13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The more time we spend daily in the Bible, the more we emulate Christ, the more we reflect the truths we read there. The world seeks to darken our light; surely you see the evil amongst us every day. The Bible recharges us to face the day as disciples of Christ, shouting from the mountaintops what God has shown us there. Matthew 10:27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. The Lord commands you to speak the truth in the face of evil, to not fear what to say for He will give you the words, to be the salt of the earth.

I openly struggle with anxiety; I have labeled it my “thorn in the flesh” as the apostle Paul called his demonic battle. Just as Paul, God is allowing it, and just as Paul He is using that demon to remind me of how much I need him daily. The battle is fought in the mind, in a spiritual warfare that I cannot see, but can feel. The only weapon that I have is the Word of God. The only true weapon you have to fight your struggles is the Bible. True change is found in a humble heart that seeks the One found there. Seek God for your struggles today, for Truth today, and go out into where he has placed you today and share what he laid on your heart. You may be the only Bible someone else has ever read, until God pursues their heart and they open it up for themselves.

 
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Posted by on August 4, 2015 in Daily Devotions