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Don’t have time for____________

Don’t have time for____________

John 12:25-26 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

Henry Blackaby says in the Experiencing God study that, “People that struggle to spend time with God don’t have a scheduling problem, they have a love problem.” They simply don’t love God enough to put him at the top of their priority list. When you have fallen in love with someone, their is never a need to pencil them into your schedule; they are at the top of your list, and your to-do list falls below them at the heading. Everything in this world, in this sin filled world, teaches success bred from selfishness. Nothing matters in life more than whatever you want in life. Nothing will get done unless you do it; nothing will come back to you unless you do the tasks at hand; nothing will come to those that don’t put 110% of their life into something. This top priority could be work or play; we have many idols that take our hearts and focus off God. We may simply not love Him enough to have the drive to pursue him enough to get to know him better.

Jesus was setting the example of a servants heart in this passage in John. He was showing us what it is, what it means to God, to have a heart that thinks first of others; not what we get in return from anything. John 13:15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Jesus lived his life for the purpose we are celebrating this week; He came to give his life so that we might have eternal life; he lived and died sacrificially. Can you imagine how God smiles down on you when he knows the true motive of your heart when you do a complete sacrificial, selfless act, expecting nothing in return? He sees your true heart; he sees Christ in you; he sees you transformed into the image of his Son when you put the needs of another before your own.

The closer you draw to God, the more you will be like Christ. The more you are like Christ the more you will live a selfless life, seeking to point others to Jesus. Things that once matter so much in this life, will not carry the weight they once did. Things that were high on your priority list, are now maybe not even on the list. Careers turn into J.O.B.S. All that money and time you put into your sports or hobbies that turned into idols, are now just good recreational fun. All those times you didn’t have for God, now you don’t have time for them.

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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Experience vs Comfort

Experience vs Comfort

Matthew 16:13-16    When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Yesterday at church we started the Experiencing God study by Henry & Richard Blackaby. This is a study close to my heart, and to be honest, I am very passionate about. I know that you cannot participate in this study for 13 weeks and your understanding and relationship with God remain the same. This study bends towards the understanding of joining God where he already is at work around you, not pleading for him to come join you at your work. This study opens up the scriptures, and develops the habits of spending daily time in the scriptures in a powerful way. “You will never be satisfied merely to know about God. Knowing God comes through experience as he reveals himself to you.”

Can you imagine being a disciple of Christ in the passage above? Can you imagine how it was to be chosen by God to be an apostle of God? Can you imagine…….the list is endless of their experiences being in the presence of Christ, chosen by God, for those few years. Peter, oh the outspoken Peter; you can almost picture yelling, was clear in his answer; and Christ built his church on the rock He called Peter. 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Jesus knew that God was opening the mind, heart, body, and soul to the truths found in Christ. Jesus rejoiced at what had been revealed to Peter by God.

If you are living your life in the comfort of Christianity, but have no evidence of your faith, how will you answer for your life on Judgment Day? What will you say when God asks you what you did with the knowledge of the sacrifice of His Son? Are you complacent; are you comfortable; are you feeling good about going to church every Sunday? Wouldn’t that be called comfortable? One of the scariest verses in the Bible is what Christ says in the book of Revelation that he will do with comfortable Christians. Revelation 3:15 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. That passage should stir your heart and soul into a daily pursuit of God in his Word and prayer. That is all it will take for the Word of God to stir you into being obedient to what the Holy Spirit reveals to you. You will either be obedient, and begin to experience God, or disobedient, and feel his wrath on that Day. The choice is easy when you realize it.

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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