Monthly Archives: February 2016

Someone very special to me, sent this to me this morning. Those close to me have heard me say, “I am tired” many times recently. The level of spiritual warfare has been relentless, and life has just come at me hard. The Lord is letting me go down tough roads to do a work in me, for a reason or outcome I don’t know, or maybe would even understand. I know personally what this devotional means to me, and if you are tired also, I hope it brings you hope also. Pray, and ask those close to you to pray for you also. Many times it is hard to pray for ourselves.

Experiencing God Day by Day
Restoration from the Shepherd
Daily Devotional for Sunday, February 28th, 2016
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Psalms 23:3
Your Shepherd knows your every need. He knows you will grow weary in your pilgrimage with Him. He knows there are times when you need rest. Your Shepherd knows just what you need to be refreshed. At times you need to lie in lush meadows or beside quiet streams. Sometimes you need to be held by your Shepherd. At other times you need to enjoy the pleasures the Shepherd provides. The Shepherd will not always replenish you in the same way; His response to you will always perfectly correspond to your present need.
As you follow your Shepherd there will be times when your soul becomes exhausted, perhaps because of trials you are experiencing or temptations you are resisting. The persecution you face or the burdens you are carrying for others may be wearing you down. You may be weary from the discipline the Shepherd has brought upon you. There will be times when you feel you can go no further in your Christian pilgrimage. Your Shepherd knows when you have reached this point, and He always has a remedy! There are many ways He can strengthen you: through His word, through others, or through your circumstances. He knows what you need even better than you do.
Have you grown weary? Does your soul need to be refreshed? Don’t attempt to recover on your own. Only God knows how to heal and rejuvenate a soul (Isa. 40:28-31; Matt. 11:28-30). He will do it perfectly, sometimes in surprising ways. Ask Him to restore you, and then be prepared to respond to what He does next.

Who do you tell?

1 Peter 5:6-9 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

Who do you tell? Who do you go to with your struggles; not your cares of this world, but your deep, dark, struggles with life? Is it your spouse, your pastor, your best friend? Is there someone who truly knows your heart, not the facade that you adorn for the day? You may help others, you may even fool others, but God knows your deepest struggles with life and the anxieties and depressions of it. In the pride of my life, I shelter my deepest struggles from those closest to me. I choose not to place my weights upon their shoulders, but I cannot hide them from God. He has either designed or allowed every battle that I face; He is the only one I am open with in prayer regarding the lows of life. That is what Peter is writing here, to cast our cares upon God.

Peter is addressing leaders in the church here in his epistle; he is addressing those that carry the weights of their flock upon their shoulders. Sometimes, they would feel prideful because of their position, and their facade would harden their hearts towards God. Peter is reminding them to remain humble in all things, for God knows all things, and they should be open and cast their struggles upon the shoulders of the One who can carry them. He is reminding them of the importance of their hearts for God (be sober, be vigilant); he is telling all of us to seek him continually with our hearts, minds, body, and soul. I like the MSG translation, for it seems to address the anxieties of a mind not focused on God, but on the anxiety. 8 Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping.

It is not of coincidence, not for a vivid picture, but an accurate portrayal of how Satan prowls like a lion as Peter writes. Lions don’t attack the strongest of the herd, they attack those weakened or distracted. That is why Peter writes, “ be prepared and pay attention.” Satan many times comes on the heels of a spiritual high, when we are distracted, prideful, and unprepared for the attack; many times it is through someone close to us. Satan preys on us when we are weak, for this is the easiest prey, for we are not prepared. We fall victim to his attacks, and he continues the assault weakening us as he drags us off God’s path. We must fight him with God’s Word! Peter did not write to flee, he commanded us to fight! How did Jesus fight when Satan tempted him? He fought with quotes from God’s Word. The fight, your ability to resist the devil is only found in your heartfelt knowledge of God’s Word. If you are unprepared to fight off an attack, who will you turn to? Who will you tell your deepest struggles to? Will you go to God? He is waiting to carry the weight of your world, your worries, for you is you will humble yourself and ask.

Let Me Show You Something Today

1 Corinthians 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

I know I offend; I know I carry many labels spoken of me in secret among those that know me. I know my testimony before Christ may weaken their faith in Christ, but sadly those are the lost that do not understand grace, and many are eternally lost in religion. When you truly don’t understand sin, and the forgiveness of it, you don’t understand what Jesus did for us. I grew up in religion, and still today see the hypocrisy of the religious as likely Satan’s greatest victory in the war for eternal souls. Many of us who call ourselves Christians live two lives; one for all this world can give us, and one put a false hope in a label of Christianity because we prayed a prayer and returned to sin. Regardless of my inability or desire to judge, regardless of your viewpoint, we ALL will bow before the same One who will set our eternity upon the decisions and actions of this life. Philippians 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The fix for the heart, the truth for the hypocrite, the security for eternity that your heart desire is the Word of God available to you. It is not a life of Sundays put together; it is not a life counting of a heavenly scale of good and evil; it is not once prayer and never returning to God again; it is ALL in your hearts desire to draw closer to God through prayer and his Word (the Bible). If you want to live as a Christian, if you want your life to change, true change begins with Jesus, and sanctification begins in his Word. Jesus gives you his Holy Spirit that will bring new meaning to the Bible you once read. Teachers will enlighten scriptures you have already been given understanding to by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who teaches you about God, through any medium he chooses, but it is ALWAYS confirmed in God’s Word. If you hear or feel led to something that you cannot find is true, or even worse confirm that it is false, that is Satan disguised as an angel of light seeking to deceive you. There are many wolves in sheep’s clothing in grand pulpits among us today.

Paul writes in the second chapter of Corinthians of a heart that seeks God; of someone who sees the simplicity in Jesus, not the eloquence of the Pharisee. Paul was highly educated and could have by his words persuaded anyone, yet he rested on what Jesus had completed, and the simplicity of those that will seek him with all their heart. He wrote of the gift and work of the Holy Spirit to a generation that did not even have the New Testament. We are blessed by so much of God’s work through Jesus Christ now in written form. The Spirit has so much to reveal to those that seek him; why do we not seek him daily with the blessing that lies in our homes? You cannot imagine how your life will change when the Bible becomes alive to you. You will not care about what people think, only what Jesus thinks. You will have an expectancy of hearing from him each morning that will pull you out of bed. You can’t wait to hear from God, and that tug you feel is him saying, “Good morning. Let me show you something today.”

It is not complicated

John 9:25-27 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

The entire ninth chapter of the gospel of John is about the simplicity found in pointing people to Jesus; the Bible has the simplicity of God’s redemptive story for a broken creation found throughout it, from the Old Testament to the New, in pointing people to Jesus. We can get so led astray in doctrinal woes, so led astray in religions laws, so led astray in trying to accomplish a false salvation by any means of our own works; we complicate the simplicity found in Jesus alone. In this chapter of John’s gospel, the Pharisees ask the one healed, and his parents at least five times who and how he was healed. They begin to point out the breaking of the Sabbath Law and begin to accuse the One who laid the law on Moses’ heart to begin with. All the laws that they failed in following, pointed to the need in their failure for a Savior; and now He walked among them while they accused him of being even an angel of Satan. Their pride condemned them; they viewed themselves righteous to perfection, and their pride condemned them eternally, if they did not recognize their sin of it, and repent and believe in Jesus alone.

You life is simple: You live in sin before Christ, you repent of sin to Christ, you live as disciple for Christ. Your testimony of the power of God through that transformation is the life you lead as his disciple until you die. All through the New Testament is how people are drawn to Jesus; they are drawn because God draws them first, and they respond to that tug. Somewhere deep in your heart, you recognize your need for Jesus; you either spend your life denying it, or you respond to in and let him become your Savior and Lord. John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I promise you there is a freedom in Jesus Christ; you will know when you are truly saved, and you will not be able to contain what you now possess in him. You will have no problem in changing your life to live sacrificially for him as his disciple. All throughout John’s gospel is the word abide; a state of being in Christ, and those that are truly in Christ produce heavenly fruit because they seek to be in God’s will each and every day.

Preachers and teachers just really point you to the need for Jesus, point to your need to become a disciple if they are teaching truth. Becoming a disciple is through a work of the sanctification of God for the rest of your life. It begins by spending daily time with him in prayer and his Word. If you are not doing that, are you really a Christian in his eyes? If you abide in him, you are living your life for him, and you do that daily. If you are not, in your heart you likely still question your salvation. You know the answer just as the blind man; “I don’t know the how, but I know the Who!” The simplicity of Jesus is living your life for the one who died to give you life. The simplicity is found in the heart that truly seeks him each and every, single, day. Everything you need in life, every question answered, lies in a humble heart seeking to abide in Jesus through prayer and his Word every day. It is not complicated…..

India

Matthew 9:37-38 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

How Can I Not Go?

The past two nights I have been awakened with India heavily on my mind. An anxiety filled my mind the last, but tonight winds blew heavily on our door and awakened me at 3am. Again, I found India front and center in my first thoughts. I tried to deny, tried to go back to sleep, but the winds kept beating against the door, yet Dana slept on. After about thirty minutes I finally gave in and got up, knowing that this time of the morning, however hard it may be, is a time you hear from God clearly, so I arose to seek him expectantly. India, all my friends, all that encompasses that country surrounded me; even in my Facebook feed there Pastor Malik was, first thing in my feed. I knew, and I confess reluctantly, that it was time to really start praying about possibly returning to India. I have said before, after all I experienced in those two weeks; “I would never go back, and I can’t imagine not going back.”

I sat down at my desk, ready to pray, and felt led to get my India Bible from the basement where I had left it from OneSimpleChurch. I retrieved it and entered into the presence of the Lord in humble prayer regarding what I knew he was laying on my heart. That wind began to howl, and I felt an intense presence of the Holy Spirit. I also felt an attack of doubt by the enemy, but it was short lived, for the presence of Light dis-spells darkness. As I pled my heart in question, wanting confirmation of what I was feeling, God spoke in my spirit to me, “You know.” So crystal clear, I began to weep, for I knew I had heard from God. You cannot be in the presence of the Lord and not be in tears, that I can assure you my friends. I was so incredibly moved by the mercy and grace he has shown me, especially in recent days, I simply pled for “why me?” It is times like this that I am leveled by the love that God bestows upon us; even in the midst of daily failures, he never gives up on hearts that seek him, even when it doesn’t seem so.

I have no clue what lies next, no different from the last trip, just being obedient to what God has clearly laid on my heart. Scared, you bet. Excited to see heavenly brothers and sisters and the power of God at work, at a level you can’t imagine. The level of the power of prayer last time sustained and provided on heavenly realms. I am thankful that this year, I have felt that call earlier, to allow and more time for prayerful preparation. I ask you to join me in seeking God’s will for this trip, and the laborers he calls into this harvest with us.

Long Road to Righteousness

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Sanctification is the lifelong process of God to conform you into the image of his Son. It is going through the winepress of life; changing the state you once were, a shell of a person, to revealing the core of itself. Sanctification is a painful process, for it is the removal of what is not needed, the elimination of what the grape thinks is necessary for survival. The grape thinks the beauty of it’s outer skin, the size of it, the color of it defines it. What lies within, once broken in half by a bite, or a winepress is the beauty that lies within. God uses his winepress of life to transform us; to make us realize it is not our shell visible to the world that matters, but our inner being that passes into eternity. When he begins to squeeze, it begins to hurt, and we wonder and want to sometimes just be the grape hanging around on the vine.

Vineyards were so prevalent, so important in Bible times, that Jesus’ analogy in John 15 was easily understood. 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Simply put, God takes care of the vine, the vine is Jesus, and if you are not attached to Jesus, you are cast aside. It is that simple; is there evidence that you are attached to Jesus? Look at your yesterday, your last week; how will you be judged if He returns today to reclaim his bride, or his church, or his Christians if you will? How will you give an account of those recent days in light of the One who asks that question of you? If you have failed, but he knows your heart for him, you are forgiven and enter into the joy of the Lord. If you have only paid lip service, returned to sin, and don’t live as his disciple, you will be cast aside.

Sanctification is the lifelong process of Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. We must look at Jesus’ life, how he came to serve, how much he suffered, how much he loved, and how he gave his life for us. A disciple is called to give their life for Jesus, to lay down their cross for him each day, seeking to be in the center of his will for each day, no matter if it be blessing or suffering. Only those that seek to abide will enter into the joy of the Lord for this life, before their eternal one with their crown of righteousness that they can lay at his feet.

Daily Reminders

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

It would be so easy
Myself a Christian to call
A weekly commitment
Nothing else at all.

I live by my calendar
On my phone you see
Reminders that beep
Daily directions for me.

I can pencil in God
He is important you know
My phone will remind me
Which day I should go.

I would hate to forget
What would people say
Christians go to church
That is a rule for that day.

Wait my calendar messed up
It has reminders each day
Discipleship must have spellchecked
How did that happen any way?

I can’t do Christian every day
I have worldly things to do
Work and sports and parties
Doesn’t God have a clue?

I can’t do Christian every day
I would have to change my mind
How in the world can I do that
I bet in the Bible I will find.

The Bible says not to worry
The world say worry a lot
It seems to me the Bible
Has a better plan to be got.

I know it will be hard
I know it may cost me dear
But I want to live for Jesus
I want this to be our year.

I want to know him more
I want to feel him near
I want to read my Bible
I want to have no fear.

I want to live for him
Paul said it will be a fight
I want to be a Christian soldier
Jesus died to give me the right.

I know how he died for me
He paid the ultimate price
Understanding this life is my cross
I don’t get a do-over twice.

I really do want to live
More than just appear
Move from just a Christian
To his disciple without fear.

I want a daily reminder
My calendar, my Bible, my heart
I want a daily abiding walk
With Jesus I will not depart.