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Ya’ ain’t them kinda smarts

23 Jul

Ya’ ain’t them kinda smarts

John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

This was Christ’s fifth resurrection appearance, and it was to 10 of His disciples (Thomas was absent) who were meeting secretly together to discuss many things. They were in fear of what had happened, and surely met to encourage one another and discuss their future plans. Christ had appeared in His risen form to them in a locked upper room. He had come to encourage and commission them for their future plans. John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” Their faith and future were strengthened.

Christ breathed on them. His breath proved His life, and through His breath He gives life. This even points back to the beginning in Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The gift of the Holy Spirit was given to all the disciples as an enabler for their future ministries. The Holy Spirit is an enabler, and provides spiritual power to aide in the work of discipleship. This was not only a gift to the disciples, but also to you as a disciple of Christ.

If you are having trouble understanding the bible, is it because you are relying on your own wisdom to reveal it to you? These things are available only through the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 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. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Humble yourself, repent of your sin, and plea for forgiveness. Christ’s Spirit will come to dwell inside of you; revealing many things that you have never seen before. Your time here on earth will take on a new light, and you will be spurred to share as the disciples shared through the power of His Spirit. The give of the Spirit is for our time here, but yet the Salvation lasts an eternity. It is only gained through a humble heart, and not through our own wisdom.

 
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Posted by on July 23, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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The Foundation

22 Jul

The Foundation.

 
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Posted by on July 22, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

The Foundation

22 Jul

The Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

I am building a massive deck/treehouse for my boys. I have been explaining the importance of the foundation to them and struggling with getting it right. The land falls three ways, and I missed it 1/2” from perfect. It will drive me crazy. All my work is built upon that foundation which is not perfect. What is the foundation of your faith? What is the base of your beliefs that your house of faith is built on?

There are so many ways to err as we build our faith, but is our faith built on the rock of Jesus Christ as the only way to heaven? We must get this right. If we do not understand whom Christ was, is, and has done for us; our faith will fall when tested by God. Christ was fully human and fully God when He came to earth. He died a painful death to justify you before a Holy God. He is the mediator between you and God and only through Him may you enter into heaven. Matthew Henry puts it; “The doctrine of our Saviour and his mediation is the principal doctrine of Christianity. It lies at the bottom, and is the foundation, of all the rest. Leave out this, and you lay waste all our comforts, and leave no foundation for our hopes as sinners. It is in Christ only that God is reconciling a sinful world to himself, 2 Co. 5:19 .”

Don’t let the world convince you there are many ways to God. We all do not end up there, and many will pay for their mistake for any eternity. There is only One way, and it is not through living a good life full of good deeds that make you feel good. It is by a humble heart, repentance of sins, and a plea for forgiveness. That is the rock upon which you build your faith that will stand in God’s testing of it. Ephesians 2: 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.

 
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Posted by on July 22, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Prayer for Aurora

21 Jul

Prayer for Aurora

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

I have really been struggling this morning on where to write. The thoughts in my head are dominated by the senseless tragedy in Aurora. As the days unfold we will learn many details of horror and heroism that unfolded that night. We will learn the media’s play on the killer’s life. There will be all sort of theories as to ‘why’. That is what everyone wants to know, yet it is not where our focus should be. There are evil people beyond our understanding near us every day, and they do not need glorified in their acts. The focus needs to be on comforting those affected as a result of their actions.

Many ask how could God allow this. I cannot begin to understand, but I can rest in the assurance of His Sovereignty, and the understanding of how evil can still be used to draw people to Him. Those that survived will realize the value of life, and many of them will change their lives for the better as a result with a humble thankful heart. The incredible story of the girl who had just survived another shooting months earlier, yet lost her life Thursday. There were some pics of people gathered in prayer that were gripping. Colossians 4:2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. In times like these we can only seek God for prayers for the lost, for the injured, and for the emotionally hurting. We can show them the compassion that God has shown us.

Please take time over the coming days to earnestly pray for those affected. Pray for them to seek Godly counsel for help in their pain. Pray for them to feel God’s touch and comfort that they will find the peace of God in this. Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Pray for healing both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Pray for them to seek God in all of this and not to fall into the snares of the world’s comfort. Let this tragedy bring them closer to Jesus. Amen.

 
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Posted by on July 21, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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The word of our testimony

20 Jul

The word of our testimony

Psalm 51:13-14 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

David had poured out to God his heart in a plea for God’s grace and forgiveness. He wanted to be a changed man and live for God. He wanted God’s grace to ease the pain, to lift the burden, to find rest in that forgiveness and salvation. I found it in study as this, “David calls sinners to salvation in this verse. He vows that he will use his experience of God’s grace as a renewed motivation to bring others into the knowledge of the love and mercy of God. David desires to be forgiven for several reasons: (1)for his own peace, (2)for the message of hope that he could communicate to others, (3)for the praise he would be able to give in the community of the faithful.” This was Davids story of forgiveness, or David’s testimony of God’s grace on him.

If you proclaim Christ, you have a testimony. You are not the same person as before. You cannot be; for He produces change from the inside out. Your testimony is the evidence of God working in your life through the blood of Christ to forgive sin and change lives. Have you ever thought about that change and tried to summarize it? It may have many avenues of change and most likely is a work in progress, but the evidence of that change God uses to reach others. He uses you as a tool to reach and encourage the lost around you, and many times your testimony is exactly what they need to hear. 1 Corinthians 1:5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.

Don’t ever be scared to share you faith and your story of how Christ changed your life. That fear that creeps in is Satan at work to try and stop the work of God through you. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Your struggles and God’s healing all make up a beautiful story of power, love, forgiveness, and change. A powerful new worship song has the lyric, “We will overcome, by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Savior, worthy of honor and glory, worthy of all honor and glory.” Share your testimony, no, live it.

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Draw the Line

19 Jul

Draw the Line.

 
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Posted by on July 19, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

Draw the Line

19 Jul

Draw the Line

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

I was reading Psalm 51 this morning; a powerful poem from David in his plea to God for forgiveness. His sins with Bathsheba and the murder that followed haunted him. The prophet Nathan had spoken to him a word from God in conviction. David pours out his heart to God in this Psalm begging for God’s grace.

My life before Christ haunts me. Satan loves to stir the memories of the great sins and the thousands of less ones. But regardless they are all sin. Satan wants to weaken my faith in fear and doubt, but God uses it to strengthen my faith in the assurance of Salvation; living now by God’s grace. I find myself resting on the words of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  You must understand their is no sin that you have committed that a repentant heart before God will not be forgiven.

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart– These, O God, You will not despise. The weight of sin you feel is God pressing in to draw you close to Him. The conviction you feel will either push you away, or pull you in through a humble repentant heart in a plea for forgiveness. Romans 6 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You can have a “do over” with your life. You can repent of the past sin and be forgiven of the future sin. It all can be a line in the sand when you go before God in the plea for His grace, through the blood of His Son. Is there any reason you would want to continue without taking the stick and drawing the line in the sand of your heart?

 
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Posted by on July 19, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Take a stand

18 Jul

Take a stand

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I had a conversation with an elderly customer last night that is still fresh in my mind about the state of affairs here in America. She told me of how her father could not believe how the world was changing in his lifetime. She said of her own, “The things we used to shun, have now become the norm, and what we used to uphold, is now shunned.” There is abundant truth in that statement. Our world is sliding away into depravity in every area of political and moral decline. Our means of acceptance of every lifestyle is leading our decay. Ruth Graham has been quoted many times about her note to Billy from 1965; “If God doesn’t soon bring judgment upon America, He’ll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”

When you truly step out in your faith, you go against the tide of the world. You will become an outsider; you will be ostracized for your beliefs. Satan wants us all to get along because under that ruse is his hidden agenda; to keep you from Christ. 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  He is at work in big ways in our society under this agenda, and has people in power working for him. But see it for what it is, a trojan horse. John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 15:19 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. Dare to be different in a world that will not. Stand up for your faith and deny what you know is wrong. These stand and persecutions will only be temporal, and the rewards for them eternal.

 
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Posted by on July 18, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Jehovah-Jireh” means “The LORD Will Provide

17 Jul

Jehovah-Jireh” means “The LORD Will Provide

Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided.”

Over the last 36 hours, the Lord has provided for my family. I cannot express the details, but the first was an answer to prayer for me, the second was an answer to prayer for my wife. Both were unexpected monetary gifts that answered a prayer of need. Both fulfilled God’s promise to us in so many ways. Are you placing your faith in God? Do you leave room to see God work or do you fill in all the gaps by yourself? You are glorified in that and never will see God’s provision in it; only your own.

God provided food for Israel that fell out of the sky for 40 years while wondering in the desert. Numbers 11:9 And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it. They had never seen this food, much less how it appeared and disappeared. The logistics of the size of the Exodus of Israel into the desert are staggering, let alone feeding them for 40 years. God humbled them in the desert and showed them many things, yet they still were a prideful, stubborn people rebelling against their Provider. Deuteronomy 8:3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

God knows what you are facing today. He has either designed or allowed it, and He wants you to seek His guidance in it. He is in control of it all. How can you ever see God at work in your life if you don’t give up your life to Him? If you keep praying and spending time with Him in His Word, He will provide. How he provides may not be how you think he should, but He is a Sovereign God, and the Creator of all, and He knows best. Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

The true meaning of Genesis 22:14 is an example of Christ in the Old Testament. Of how God will provide a means to escape the punishment of sin through the blood of Christ on the Cross at Calvary. This example in Genesis speaks of great faith, and great sacrifice, and of God’s provision for eternal paradise with Him.

 
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Posted by on July 17, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Thank you Jesus for……

16 Jul

Thank you Jesus for……

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I believe it was Adrian Rogers who said, “Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve.” You are born into sin, and your heart is bad no matter how much of a good person you feel that you are. There is a false religion out there saying we are all good at heart, and why would God make us bad. Our freedom of choice is where we fell into sin in the garden with Adam and Eve, and like it or not you are a descendent of them; therefore you are born into sin.

Now the good news: A humble, repentant heart can be saved from eternal punishment by the way of Christ. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever will believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This paves the way for us to obtain that grace and mercy. Matthew Henry summarizes it well. “Mercy and grace are the things we want; mercy to pardon all our sins, and grace to purify our souls. Besides our daily dependence upon God for present supplies, there are seasons for which we should provide in our prayers; times of temptation, either by adversity or prosperity, and especially our dying time. We are to come with reverence and godly fear, yet not as if dragged to the seat of justice, but as kindly invited to the mercy-seat, where grace reigns. We have boldness to enter into the holiest only by the blood of Jesus; he is our Advocate, and has purchased all our souls want or can desire.”

The scriptures before Hebrews 4:16 are speaking of the power of God’s Word. Both in the context of Christ as the Word, and the context of His written Word. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.You must come to know Christ in your heart before the written Word is revealed to you. His Spirit will dwell inside of you and begin to reveal His written Word as never before. You can’t have one without the other, and grace and mercy are found in both.

 
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Posted by on July 16, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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