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His Word – not mine

22 Jun

His Word – not mine

Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (ESV)

Oh how I wish I could tell you how much this scripture encouraged me this morning. Of how God gave me the exact words I needed to hear upon opening his Word. Of how I prayed for that encouraging word from Him; and he directly spoke to me with his reply. Thank you Jesus! The self-inflicted pressures of this ministry have been great recently. They come as a result of the demands of the world, and they come as the result of the demands I put upon myself. This ministry is my heartbeat, but whom is it beating for? After a year and a half of this daily diligence, I am my own worst critic. I feel a failure when it does not happen….and pride creeps in. God knows my heart, he knows my load, he gives the means for it’s birth every day.

Paul got it; he never made his ministry about anything but Christ. He could have easily elevated himself with his background and education, but he only sought to remain humble and elevate only Christ. Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.(ESV) Pride has creeped in and destroyed many a great ministries. They began to feel that they either made it all, or they feel the tug to please men in it all; they seek approval through it. Paul only sought to point others to Christ in it. It is all about Him; it is never about the messenger, it is about the message.

The experiences I have out here every morning are the reason I am out here every morning. How God has changed my heart in recent years all after that conscious effort to start reading my Bible every day. Of how He transformed a life steep in sin, headed down hells highway, to a life with only the goal of pleasing Him and sharing with others the hope I have found in Him. He gave me this ministry and this forgiven heart; I am forever thankful for them both. All I want to do is to encourage you to spend time every day seeking Him on your own. Never let this ministry substitute for time in His Word alone. Matthew 6:33 Seek Ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. I am a living proof of how your life will change when you start to read your Bible every day. Make today that day.

 
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Posted by on June 22, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Passionate Devotion

19 Jun

Passionate Devotion
John 21:17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”
I needed an encouraging word this morning; in my prayer time I pled for God to do so. So much on my mind, the pressures of life come, everything to take my focus off Him. I am no different that you; I struggle just like you in many of the same ways as you. My heart was changed no so long ago, and now my heart yearns for the life after this one, with the One who forgave me and provided that opportunity. That realization has produced in me a passion to seek, serve, and obey my Savior. It is against the current in all that a heart for this world produces. It goes against all that the sin in this world glorifies. That driving force, that love for Christ, must be strong enough to withstand all that comes against that devotion. It must go where it is led by Him; it must endure what is allowed by Him; it must be enabled by Him to continue on at all costs. A disciples heart is a devoted heart to only one cause; their love for Christ, and all that comes with it.
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
Service Of Passionate Devotion
Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep. — John 21:16
Jesus did not say – Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. “If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple.” There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply – If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says – “Now I see Who Jesus is,” and that is the source of devotion.
Today we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord’s first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24).

 
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Posted by on June 19, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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T.G.I.F. > Today God Is First

14 Jun

T.G.I.F. > Today God Is First

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the LORD hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

T: Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the LORD hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

My every morning prayer has one certain repetition: Thank you Lord for today. He grants me the breath for the day, and allows or designs all that will be in the day. He is the creator and sustainer of all of life to the smallest detail. He has granted me breath for another day to serve a purpose for that day. I seek to be in the center of his Will for each day.

G: Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

He is the creator, sustainer, judge, jury, and ruler of all. He will return to judge all of our lives in a holy court for how we have lived our lives according to his good Word. We must give account for all our thoughts, deeds, spoken and unspoken words. We must give account of how we treated the sacrifice He made for us at Calvary. Did we live the life of a disciple?

I: Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.

What is He really to you? Where does your daily life reflect your relationship with your Lord and Savior? Do those around you know that your are a Christian? Do they want to be a Christian because of you? If you have Christ at the center of your life because of the love you feel for him, you will naturally be an outpouring of his Spirit that lives inside of you. The love that you have will be known to all that come in contact with you.

F: Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Start your day out with God and all your day will be better. A heart for God seeks him early in the day, before the pressures of the day, try to take your eyes off Him. A heart for God spends time in his Word and prayer, seeking to abide with him for the day. A heart for God comes to the understanding that all the trials of life can draw you closer to Him, not take you away from Him as Satan desires to do. Preparing your day with God is the key to all you desire. Your life will not change until you start your day with God. In that effort is found all that you desire each and every day. It starts with today.

 
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Posted by on June 14, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Holy Mirror

09 Jun

Holy Mirror

Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

In the midst of all the letters to the seven churches, Christ is proving that He knows the heart. Here He is speaking to the church at Thyatira, where a seductress is leading the church and leading the men of the church into sexual sin with her. She has been called to repent, but turned her back on God. 21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Christ is pronouncing the judgement due for the un-repented hearts that live in this great sin. What must be seen in all of these pronouncements to the churches, is that only God knows our true hearts, which drives our motives and actions in all that we do; Pslam 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. There should be a reverent fear in us with the understanding that there are no secrets with God. These letters to the seven churches reveal the evidences of that Sovereignty, and with it should come holy fear.

When you look at your life in the mirror, what evidence do you see of Christ? These letters to the churches are a mirror to the churches of their good, bad, false, and true traits only known by God. This is a holy mirror that will reveal all is known of their hearts. When you look at your life as a student; what was the assignment of the teacher? Christ called you to be a disciple, to spread the hope found in him to all that would hear. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. These were Christ’s last words as he ascended into heaven; when he returns he will ask (and already know), how did you do with the assignment. What evidences are in your life of the price He paid for your life?

Only two of the seven churches received no condemnation; Smyrna and Philadelphia. They exhibited grace and endured persecution all while keeping His Word and and honoring His name. They lived lives focused on eternity, and the promises found in the price He had paid for that eternity for them. They endured the trials of life for their short time here; they sought to keep true to the faith in the face of evil and persecution. As the faithful in Smyrna were told, they understood the promise to those that lived their lives faithfully to Him. They understood that this life was temporary, but what awaited them was eternal paradise after this one. Revelation 2:11b :He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. A life that truly grasps this temporal, and the coming eternal, is a life that will reflect Christ. If you understand the price that was paid with a Holy sacrifice, you will do all that you can to live your life to honor that sacrifice. Anything less is found in these letters to the seven churches.

 
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Posted by on June 9, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Get up and get busy

04 May

Get up and get busy

Romans 13:11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Paul had just addressed the commandments found in the Law (the Ten Commandments) given to Moses by God. He had closed with the summary of, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:9b,10.) He is addressing of how we are to live, of how we are to “put on Christ” every day. We are told in these scriptures of four points of how to live our daily lives in Him; what to do and what not to do. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. If we do not allow theses provisions, or open doors to them, then we are able to focus our daily lives on the One who gives us daily life.

We hear of the “awakening out of sleep” many times in the scriptures. We are more than asleep, we are truly asleep or dead in our sin. We will die and suffer for our sin without the grace of Salvation found in Christ. We are awakened in this Salvation, and arisen from this sleep for the paradise of eternity with Him. A quote from a Scottish pastor George MacDonald sums this up well, “You are a soul. You have a body.” You are destined for eternity, and once you grasp that grace that has been bestowed upon you, you should dedicate and use your body to draw glory to the One who bestowed it upon you. Paul again stresses this understanding of our earthy bodies in 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Matthew Henry wrote, “The nearer we are to our centre the quicker should our motion be. Is there but a step between us and heaven, and shall we be so very slow and dull in our Christian course, and move so heavily? The more the days are shortened, and the more grace is increased, the nearer is our salvation, and the more quick and vigorous we should be in our spiritual motions.” Christ is consistently telling us to be prepared for his return; to live our lives in expectation of it. We have no idea of the time, but we will answer for how our time in this body is spent when He returns. Mark 13:33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. If He shows up today, how will you respond? Are you using your body to glorify Him, or is does your body show any evidence of the promise you claim in Him? Make today the day that you seek to be more like Him than yesterday; and the same for tomorrow……..

 
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Posted by on May 4, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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R12 Christian

30 Apr

R12 Christian

Romans 12:1-2     I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)

The apostle Paul had just pointed us to the understanding of how our entire lives flow through God’s mercy; Romans 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. When we come to grasp the power of God and his sovereignty, we should become naturally bent towards a heart of worship to him. We should be moved with that small grasp of understanding to a life transformed by it. Paul is showing us that how we live our lives is a direct reflection of our worship to Him. I do like the ESV (English Standard Version) of this scripture, for it makes that clear in Romans 12:1.

Paul stresses this point in 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? He is addressing the topic of sexual immorality, a battle that in most of our lives we have faced at some time, inwardly or outwardly. Paul is pointing to the evidence as Christians that we are sinning with the Spirit of Christ that is living inside of us. Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Can you imagine the Spirit inside of you in pain when you go against God; when you fall into sin for that small pleasure for a short time? He might say, “Oh, why are you doing that? Do you not see what I have planned for you?” It pains God to see the power that sin has over our lives; so much so that He gave his Son to rescue us from it.

The closer you draw to God with a true heart that desires him, and the things of him, the more you will begin to live your life in worship to Him. You will begin to feel His Spirit at work more and more in you; convicting you of your sin when you fall, and drawing you away from it when you are tempted. 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. That is the renewal of your mind spoken of in Romans 12:2. You will begin to think differently the more you seek God. You will begin to discern those temptations and hopefully avoid them. You will begin to seek the pleasure that living a life for the One who gives you life an act of worship to Him. That circle of life in those acts of worship lead to becoming the disciple you are ultimately called to be.

 
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Posted by on April 30, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Open the trunk

29 Apr

Open the trunk

Psalm 31:3 For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name’s sake, Lead me and guide me.

I saw a post this morning on FB, “Is God your steering wheel or your spare tire?” That is a great analogy, on what is He to us? Do you spend enough time with Him to say that he steers your life, or do you just go to him in times of trouble for help? Is God so small in your life that he is reduced to the likeness of a mini-spare? Just a temporary fix to get where you are going, and then thrown back in the trunk until another emergency comes up again? Spare tires are for emergencies only, they utilized only to get you out of a bad situation and on to a point in your journey that they are set aside for the next bad situation. We can all let God spend too much time in the trunks of our lives.

Psalm 31 is written by David, and it is a Psalm of thanksgiving for being a child of God. He is pouring our his heart to God in a lament over the trouble in his life. He is weary from all the people in pursuit of him after his life. But buried in this Psalm of the weariness of David is the beauty of one who trusts God. Buried in there is a heart that knows all of his life is under God’s control,  Psalm 31:15a My times are in Your hand. David trust and longs for God; he puts his entire life in God’s hands. He was known as having a heart for God, even in all his failures he exemplified a repentant heart that continually sought God. Psalm 84:2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. David’s life story, one of blessings, adultery, murder, and repentance, shows us the power of God’s grace and mercy upon us. David showed us that God knows the heart, and God loves the repentant heart that sees it’s sin, and desires to repent of that sin, and draw closer to God in dependance on him.

How do you let God be your steering wheel? How could you possibly know from God which way to turn in your life? How could you know whether to turn to the right, or the left, or to continue on the same path you are on? Matthew 6:33 Seek Ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. It is that simple; seek God every single day in His Word and prayer. Spending daily time with God will allow you to clearly hear God’s voice and discern the direction he wants you to go in your life. God is around you every day, but Satan through your attention to the world has numbed your senses to God. Satan has filled your mind with the white noise of this world, and only daily time in the Bible and prayer will filter out that noise so that you can hear the One who desires to tell you which direction to turn.

 
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Posted by on April 29, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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The wicked must answer

22 Apr

The wicked must answer

Nahum 1:14 The Lord has given a command concerning you: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the molded image. I will dig your grave, For you are vile.”

The prophet Nahum was warning of God’s impending judgement on Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. The Assyrian’s were the most cruel of their time, even to the point of the most throughout history. In their conquests of lands in they were merciless and evil people. They slaughtered children and tortured many unto death in horrible acts of evil. They seemed to take great joy in their wicked ways. They were the baddest of the bad, and feared by all. God had even allowed them to do His work for him in the punishment of the Israelites for their sinning against God. But that did not excuse the Assyrians from having to answer to God for their own sin. God had sent Jonah to warn them; they repented and were granted grace in impending judgement. But their repentance was short lived, and God sent Nahum to proclaim it was time for the great city of Nineveh to fall under His righteous hand.

When you see these senseless acts of violence in todays society, many times they are under the guise of religion. They have been led to believe that an act of terror, to kill the innocent in the name of their god, gets them in the good graces of their god. They will receive a reward for killing in the name of their god? In what god’s name is killing good? In what god’s name are they granted judgement on another person’s soul? What kind of evil god is so weak that he needs his followers to make eternal decisions for him? The simplicity at the core of their belief system is a failure; one of evil and idolatry of oneself. The will have to answer to the eternal God for their actions. Nahum 1:2 God is jealous, and the Lord avenges; The Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies; 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way In the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet.

The entire book of Nineveh should strike fear in those that are against God. The proofs of His final judgement lie within these scriptures. Nineveh was completely destroyed, never to be rebuilt again in history. In fact, the Assyrians disappeared from history itself after the destruction of its capital city. Nahum was bringing a message of hope to Israel in this prophecy, for both kingdoms had suffered under Assyria. This impending judgement on the evil of that day, and the evil of this day, should spur you to share your hope that lies in Christ. When evil grabs our attention, and makes us question the frailty of life, it is a prime opportunity to share your hope in Christ for eternity after this one. 1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect. (ESV)

 
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Posted by on April 22, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Spotlights

01 Mar

Spotlights

2 Corinthians 4:5-6      For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I am a behind the scenes kinda guy. I will give my labors of love, but expect no recognition for them. Whatever I find myself doing, I try to do it to the best of my ability, and to draw glory to Christ. I want no glory in any work or ministry I perform. I have Colossians 3:23 on the side of my work truck to remind me every day: 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. The sin in me wants to puff my chest out in pride, but Christ is me is the reminder that He is the provider; I am the bondservant or slave that rests in his grace and mercy. Why would we want to draw attention to ourselves? We can provide only temporary satisfaction, while He can provide eternal hope and joy. The glory rests in His work, not ours.

Paul was defending his ministry here in Corinthians. Some of those had come to say he was being deceptive, and he took great offense in that. He understood that all he was came from Christ; he had nothing to deliver except the promise of the Gospel; in it is the completion of any temporal and eternal need. 2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (ESV) He knew that he had been called by God to become a minister of the Gospel, and he only wanted to point those who will hear to Christ, not to draw any glory to himself. There is no more powerful message than that delivered in Christ; the only glory in yourself is a life transformed by the knowledge of the Salvation that lies in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  

The world we live in pushes the pride of accomplishment. From the houses, to the cars, to the salaries, to the stuff we obtain. We rest in the pride of the American dream; “I can do all things that I put my mind to.” God may allow this for a season, and he may also remove them for a reason. He may bring to you the understanding that it all flows and stops through his sovereign hands and control.  James 1:7 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  You are called by God to be a light in a dark world that needs him. Make sure that spotlight is on Him and not you.

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Behind these blue eyes

28 Feb

Behind these blue eyes

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I am no different from you. I am in many ways likely struggling with life just like you, maybe even more. I just like you put on my happy face and give cordial responses when asked, but wherein does the truth lie? Who do you have in your life that truly knows what your deepest struggles are, those that are warring inside your head? Even my wife and best friend do not know the level of warfare inside my head. My greatest sin is pride, and my confidentiality is wrapped up in it. Do you bear you soul to those closest to you? Sometimes the battles get so great that I feel as though I am loosing my mind; my memory is the first to suffer in these strains. That produces more strain from the understanding of my DNA and the disease of Alzheimer’s. It is almost a vicious cycle. There is One who knows all that I am under, and the heart I have for Him.

I find myself in Matthew Six repeatedly. Real personal advice from the mouth of Christ on how to live my life daily. Where to focus, where to place our trust, where to place our hope, what to do every single day. Matthew 6:33 Seek Ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The understanding of all that this life has, is found in that scripture and the pursuit of it. Nowhere in it does it say it will be easy, but in it is found true understanding of eternity. It it is found spending time in God’s Word and prayer, and therefore you will come to possess the strength to face and fight all that you battle every day. You will learn that it is temporary, and the rewards are eternal. You will understand that you sin because you are a sinner, and the forgiveness is only found in Him. You will learn that you are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone; that you can never do enough to earn it. (Ephesians 2:8)

God wants to grow you closer to Him. This means that He will put acts of obedience before you to gauge where your faith lies. He may take you down very hard roads that you would not have traveled to accomplish his purpose. He may seemingly hurt you to grow you more into the image of his Son. All He desires is to make us more like Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:8 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. You may not share with others all your deepest struggles, but you can share them with the One who already knows them. He has either designed it or allowed it to accomplish his purposes. The more time you spend with God every day, the more you come to understand the struggles in life are just for a moment, and that moment is to draw you closer to eternity.

 
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Posted by on February 28, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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