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When YOU are ready

15 Sep

When YOU are ready

Hebrews 11:1-2     Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

Helloooo…..is there anybody up there????? God, are you hearing my prayers? I have been praying to you about this, but you don’t answerrrrrr me. Why don’t you answer me? We all have made those statements; those statements show our level of faith in them. Not receiving an answer, or maybe even receiving one we don’t like, so we continue to pray hoping to change God’s mind. Thank you God for so many unanswered prayers. It is in our little minds that we lack that understanding of how God operates out of the confines of time; He created time, rules time, and is not bound by time. When I stress out over the things that don’t happen on my timetable with God, the Holy Spirit always seems to whisper this scripture to me: 2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Can you look at the entire Bible in the light of that scripture? In God’s eyes, it has only been a couple of days since Christ payed for our sin debt due. Look at how our world has run from God again; we are just like the stubborn, stiff-necked Israelites of the Old Testament. We see the proof of God, and then turn our backs on him, over and over again.

Hebrews 11 is the place to go for the proof of those patriarchs of faith. Those people that had such great faith in God, they put their lives entirely in his hands. It was by this faith, that verse two shows that God considered them righteous by their faith. Hebrews 11 is the chapter on which one’s faith is proven by the action that is taken. The level of our faith can be found in the understanding of the sunrise we see every day. The simple beauty and incredible complexity of all creation, right down to us as His greatest creation. Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (ESV) If God can breath a star into existence, the details of my life are a breeze. The level of your faith will determine how you live your life. “You are what you believe”, a best friend, and the Godliest man I know once told me. Your faith is found in that statement and self-analysis. It will guide your every decision in the background of your mind. When you are wondering the “whys” of your life, and or your prayer life, consider that God is testing your faith in delayed responses in and to them. Keep drawing near to God and He will answer you, when YOU are ready.

 
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Posted by on September 15, 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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Tell them

22 Feb

Tell them

Ezekiel 3:17-18    “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

Ezekiel was experiencing becoming a great prophet called by God. His vision captured in chapter two of Ezekiel are extraordinary; he fell on his face in the presence of God. The Holy Spirit lifted him up and he stood before God, about to become anointed as a prophet. God told him it would be a difficult ministry to a stubborn people; he commanded Ezekiel to eat the scroll of the commands of which God spoke. Ezekiel was filling himself with God’s words, literally, and he described it sweet as honey. God placed a great responsibility on Ezekiel, 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: God told him that he must speak the words and warnings, no matter what they may be, for he is called to held accountable to God for following these commands.

We may find it easy to share the Good News of Christ. We may find it easy to tell the world of the hope of heaven that lies within us as a child of God. Are we also delivering the bad news; that a sinner who does not know, or does not accept Christ, will spend eternity in hell? There is no good news if you do not accept the bad first. “The present world is the only hell the Christian will ever know, and it is the only heaven the unsaved will experience.” (Dr. Wilmington). We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. As a child of God you are called to point out that sin; not to judge the sinner, but to tell them in a loving manner of the sin in their lives.

We live in a society that has no spine. We live in a society that has lost the understanding of the Absolute Truth of the word of God. We have become so worried to not offend, truth has become pliable to fit into all circumstance. We may see sin, we may feel the conviction of sin, but yet we do not point to the sin for fear of loss of friendship or pleasure of self. James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. This is a sin of disobedience; the sin of “not doing” whatever God may be convicting you of, or showing you in others. How will they know if we do not tell them? 2 Timothy 2:24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

 
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Posted by on February 22, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Bible Study 101

04 Dec

Bible Study 101

Psalm 63:1 A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.

As I was in prayer this morning, I came to realize this ministry is just over 330 days old. For most of those days I have risen early each day, spent time with God, and written what He laid on my heart at that time. It has been an open book of how to show you God in all areas of my life; but it has never been an idea to substitute your time with Him. You are missing out on the true experience if you stop here. As a best friend and Godly man once told me; take the scriptures in the devotionals and get into God’s Word. You will likely be placed in the middle of some context, and you should search out all the history and results of that context. Wa-la – great lengthy time in God’s Word.

A good study Bible is the key to helping to understand and guide you along your way. As in Psalm 63 above, it is the story of David when he was seeking God with all his heart; he seems to be in a desert. Why was he in the desert? What happened to him there? You will learn of David as a great warrior; Saul as a jealous king who seeks to kill David. God may very likely open your eyes to something else when you begin to truly study His Word. I have written beside this scripture in my Bible, “Today our world is dry. Far from God.” The Holy Spirit living inside of you will reveal God’s Word to 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.

It has not been that long ago that I made the conscious effort to read my Bible every day. It changed my life forever, and it will do the same for you. You cannot grow closer to God without seeking God every day and spending time in His Word. You will get out of it what you put into it.  My heart lies is encouraging you to spend daily time with God; to use any devotional as a stepping stone into His Word. If you will do this one thing, all the other things will fall into place. Live your life as in Matthew 6:33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Bible study 101 starts right now.

 
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Posted by on December 4, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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