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Chief of sinners – Forgiven!

21 Apr

Chief of sinners – Forgiven!

1 Peter 1:13-16   Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;  as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

I love how God works. I am giving my testimony this coming week, and the time I have been spending with God over these last couple of days has put me in 1 Peter where he is speaking of all the trials of life. How we were before Christ, and then how we are to conduct ourselves now upon Salvation and Christ dwelling in us. Of how the persecutions and difficulties will come on both mental and physical plains, but these realizations of being children of God will provoke a reverent holy fear of God. Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Once you begin to grasp the understanding of who God is, and what He has done for you, that reverent fear comes as a strong emotion deep within your soul.

As I look back as part of reflecting for testimony preparation, I feel as Paul said 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. It is so humbling realizing what Christ has done for all of us, even those who still hate Him. Now on this side of Salvation I strive to be a better person, to live a life honoring the One whom gave His life for me and you. I lean on the time in His Word and prayer and the pursuit of the renewing of my mind as in 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. This is a daily pursuit, every day asking for forgiveness, and asking for guidance to help me along the way. I beg you to reflect on your life and understand there is nothing you have done that you cannot be forgiven for through repentance and acceptance of Christ into your heart. It is never too late, until it is.

 
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Posted by on April 21, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Trojan Horse

20 Apr

Trojan Horse

1 Peter 2:11-12     Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The draws of sin are ever present, and the tugs of sin can become overpowering if you do not pursue a strength through the Holy Spirit to abstain from them. We all have the battle between good and evil that rages inside us as a result of the falling away in the Garden of Eden. Even after Salvation the inner war rages on inside us in a Spiritual realm that we all feel on a daily basis. Salvation does not bring perfection and the freedom from that war, but it brings the eternal freedom from the punishment of sin when Christ has paid our eternal debt on the Cross at Calvary. In  Romans 7  Paul speaks of the battle of good and evil inside us; that even the great apostle wonders why he does the things he really does not want to do.

Even in my early morning hours when I arise to spend my time with God, I will awake sometimes to a battle within my mind I was not even aware of while I slept. Anxieties, pressures of life, worry, doubt, and lusts can enter into our thoughts at the beginning of the day even before we are awake.  But we must pursue the time spent with God to fight that battle, and to walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-17  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. This pursuit and strength that come from time spent with God, is the necessary weapons that you need to fight these battles. Do not let pride creep in with the thoughts of conquering this war alone. Pride is the Trojan horse of Satan and will destroy you from within.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Arise expecting

18 Apr

Arise expecting

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.

What drives you to arise every day? The alarm clock blares, and the toils of the day lie in wait for you. Is it the provision, or the necessity of the work load that drive you every day? Is there nothing better in your book than a day off so you can sleep as late as possible? We all need our rest, and we all get it in different ways and times, but Christ is calling you to arise from your sleep in sin. Our sin filled world has deadened our senses to Christ, and has us asleep in sin. The expectation of our coming Lord can awaken you both bodily and soulfully. That expectation He places within you is a priceless motivation.

Psalm 63:1 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. This is a Psalm of David who was known as having a heart that longed for God. That longing is available to you also, and will drive you as it did him. Prayer and time in God’s Word plays such a large part in the awakening of your soul to the things of Christ. The more time you spend with Him, the greater your expectation is to hear from Him, and the more “awake” you become spiritually with Him. Mark 13:32-37 speaks of the coming of the Lord, and how we are to be awake and prepared for it. This is an exhortation to not remain in sin, but to be awake and prepared for His coming. We simply cannot remain living in sin, and have a heart for God. 1 Thessalonians 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. Begin to seek that daily time with God, and from it will come a desire to arise from sleep, for that is the expectation of meeting Him every day.

 
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Posted by on April 18, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Oh no thanks, I can do it..

17 Apr

Oh no thanks, I can do it..

Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

What is the heaviest load you bear? Mine is mental stress, and the anxiety and depression that are fed from it. If I were to divulge my testimony, it would be full of the stresses of life that many of us fall under. Pride could really be the topic heading under which stress falls though, because pride will lead you to believe that you are to bear the weight of that cross. Christ tells us when we feel those loads are too heavy, to give them to Him in Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Christ is offering to carry our cross for us, and even as He says in Luke 9:23, we are to give it to Him DAILY. The weight of our cross, whatever it may be, we cannot shoulder for six days a week and give it to Him on Sunday mornings.

The true meaning in Luke 9:23 is much deeper, and our cross is none to compare to Christ’s carrying the weight of our sin. Christ was speaking to the apostles and what they must endure as followers of Him. 1 Peter 4:16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.  The apostle Paul speaks of denying himself and dying daily for Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:31. We will suffer as Christians for we are not of this world, and the world is against us recognizing that. What I consistently beg you to do, is to humble yourself before God. That denial of pride, leads to forgiveness of sin, and leads to Him shouldering the load we cannot bear. The dying of yourself should come every day through time spent with Him in prayer and His Word. We are not designed to live our life as the world presses us to live in the instant gratification and pressures of today. The only way to release those daily burdens is through daily time with the One whom has already bore the heaviest Cross for you.

 
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Posted by on April 17, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Dad, can I pray?

16 Apr

Dad, can I pray?

Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Yesterday on the way home from a great afternoon with my oldest son, he said “Dad can I pray?” It did surprise me a little but I said sure you can. He just gave God a prayer of Thanksgiving for the great afternoon, all the fun, and with the innocence of a child. It warmed my heart to say the least. So many of us don’t pray with the excuse of not feeling as though we know how to pray. This doubt is a direct influence of Satan and the sin in our lives. There is no right or wrong way to pray if you set your heart humbly before the Almighty God. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us an outline in the Lords Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). This is the model prayer and leads into a deeper relationship with our God. Once you set your heart before God, your desire is to spend more time with Him in communication through prayer and His Word.

I grew up with many repetitious prayers in church and in life. I believe the older we get, the more we begin to feel our prayers should sound Holy with all the “Thou Art” and some of the beautiful language that honors God. All of your prayers should honor God, and the closer you draw to Him the more God honoring your prayers become. Don’t pray for others to hear you to impress them with your prayers. Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Prayer is not to impress anyone but to draw our hearts near to our Sovereign God. Just as with that intuition that we feel as parents when our children ask, He knows on a much grander scale what we are going to ask even before we ask it. Matthew 6:8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. Humble yourself today in some quiet time with the One who gave you breath today, and give thanks to Him. Your every day is a gift, and the thanks for that gift is an easy place to start. Matthew 18:4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 
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Posted by on April 16, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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I want to change

15 Apr

I want to change

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

Most of us want to change ___________. Yep, fill in the blank. We all have something that we want to change about ourselves. But any and all change is only accomplished through Christ first. Nothing can or will change you eternally except Salvation. Without Christ, there is nothing but temporal change that will always leave you unsatisfied. Upon Salvation, and the indwelling of the Spirit within you, there comes a yearning for more, or should I say change. We begin to want to improve our lifestyle, to grow closer to God, to become a better person. These are only accomplished through Christ and through seeking His guidance as in Matthew 6:33. True change is accomplished through seeking and following God’s Will for our lives.

If there is one thing I can speak to you outside Salvation, it is to live this lifestyle of Matthew 6:33. Put God first and into everything of your life. Spend time every day in His Word and prayer to see your life evolve. All these things you plan are futile if they do not fall under His leadership. All these things you plan will fall into place if you truly seek Him, and you may find out your plans were not as well thought as His for your life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. God will reveal Himself to you once He sees the honor you place on Him with your heart truly seeking Him. When we put Him first, and don’t move without seeking His guidance, He is there for us. The more time we spend with Him every day, the more we begin to understand what His Will is for our lives. Once we begin to understand that, the rest falls into place.

I tell you this because it is my testimony of change that started with Salvation, and led to wanting to simply start reading my Bible every day. Change happens through the Word of God and prayer. A few minutes every day has turned into hours, and that has changed my life. What I once valued most, I now value least, and I see things that truly matter. God will open your eyes through your heart once you begin to seek Him first in all things. All you must do to change is to accept Him, then seek Him, and follow His Will for your life.

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Worry? Only for a day, if that!

14 Apr

It is hard to condense a favorite verse into a OneMinuteMinistry. It is hard to decide which road to go down when God has spoken to me so many times in so many ways in these scriptures. How it is a spine of my belief system to Seek Him First. How if I could tell anyone anything next to Salvation, it would be to live your life as in Matthew 6:33. If you will truly put God first in every avenue, every detail of your life, the rest of your life will fall into place. Today I touch on anxiety, which I have been open with my struggles with anxiety and depression before, but I have found the best medicine was between the pages of the Book that is the strength He gave me. I may spend a few days here in Matthew, so bear with me as God reveals my heart to you to encourage you to seek Him in all things!

 

 

Worry? Only for a day, if that!

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

Matthew 6 is one of my favorite chapters in the bible. The Lords Prayer is found there, the scriptures about time alone with God, fasting, and then it ends in the passages about anxiety. I struggle with anxiety and must press into these scriptures often. Just as a lawyer in a trial would issue their closing statement, Matthew says if we put God first in all things, nothing else will matter. Verse 34 even closes that argument stronger in the avenue of worry. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” We must understand the frailty of life and spending the day worrying about the next day that may never come is an exercise of wasted effort. James 13-14 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Matthew 6:33 is a scripture that represents a lifestyle. It represents what you value, what you place before God. How big is your problem, or how big is your God in the avenue of everything that occupies your thoughts? When Satan enters in through doubt, he gains a foothold in the weakening of your faith. He begins to undermine your faith and continues the attack. But you must realize that God gave you the power to overcome him, and this is accomplished through prayer and time in the His Word. There is strength in the Bible that will push Satan down when worry comes and I can personally promise you this. Matthew 6:31-32 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. The world worries about how their needs will be met. As a child of God you can rest in His assurance that He will provide for you today, and you will have no need to worry about tomorrow. That is the description of biblical peace that you can obtain by Salvation through Christ, and a relationship with Him through daily time with Him, that nothing can take from you.

 
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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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How can ya’ love…….?

13 Apr

How can ya’ love…….?

1 John 4:17-19  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.

John was the apostle whom Jesus loved, and much of John’s writings are an expression of that love. In the verses before this (1 John 4: 12-16) John is speaking of knowing and seeing God through love, and how our lives are a reflection of Him in that. If we truly abide with Him, we will love one another and become an outpouring of that love, in a self centered world far from it. 1 John 4:12-13 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. The world we live in preaches self at all costs, and Christ preaches humble love through selflessness. When we abide in Him, we begin to reflect His love for others through our actions and reactions that go against what the world expects. They begin to wonder what makes you different.

So much of the world right now is in a state of elevated fear in all arena’s. The wars and rumors of wars are on the forefront of the world stage. The world economy is on the verge of collapse, and most of us have seen drastic changes in our own financial struggles over the recent years. All this is creating fear, but you can possess an inner strength that can overcome that fear. Love and fear are an oxymoron from God’s eyes. Fear is not from God, but from Satan. 2 Timothy 1:For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. When we rest in the eternal security of Salvation, not even war or poverty can tug us down the road of fear Satan wants us to take. He who is in us is greater than He who is in the world. Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Seek the relationship with your heavenly Father daily that will produce a heart full of love, and a sound mind full of peace, that can face the daunting days with a smile that will reflect Christ.

 
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Posted by on April 13, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Roller-coaster

12 Apr

Roller-coaster

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

The roller-coaster ride of the thing we call life. It really does seem to be the perfect analogy with all of the ups and downs, the constant direction changes, the going in circles, or even when we feel as though we are going crazy like a corkscrew. We set our plans in motion and a unexpected drop or turn is thrown into our path. We begin to climb the ladder of worldly success and upon reaching the pinnacle, the world falls out from under us. There could be countless analogies that we all could insert our stories into that ride. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, and he understood that from his own success and failures of it. I strongly encourage you to read the book of Ecclesiastes for it is so relevant for today. Ecclesiastes 3: 2-8 is a great description of that roller-coaster of life.

In Ecclesiastes 3: 2-15, my Bible commentary puts it; “Solomon teaches that all events are in the hand of God, who makes everything happen in the time He judges appropriate.” It is so hard for our prideful, sin filled hearts to ever accept the idea that we are not in control of our lives. But all that comes to us, or leaves from us, passes through the hands of God either by His design or allowance. Matthew Henry puts it;  “That every change concerning us, with the time and season of it, is unalterably fixed and determined by a supreme power; and we must take things as they come, for it is not in our power to change what is appointed for us.” His commentary is so strong that I have includes a link below to it. With the understanding that God is in control comes a Peace that this world cannot provide. We are assured of how He can work any situation ultimately for good in Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  Once you have accepted Christ unto Salvation, there is nothing this roller-coaster of life can throw at you that will ever leave you in fear of leaving the tracks, for God designed the ride.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/ecclesiastes/3.html

 
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Posted by on April 12, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Even that?

11 Apr

Even that?

Philemon 1:4-7   I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.

Yesterday I was sharing my love for God with a customer. He is a brother in Christ and we were just having a great talk. But the reason we started talking was the prompting of the Holy Spirit to do so. When you feel those nudges inside to share your faith, do you respond or immediately begin to argue why this is not the time? Many times we get scared or “cold feet” when we feel led to share out faith. But we are actually saddening the Spirit that lives inside us, for He seeks to edify and share Himself with others. Ephesians 4:29-30 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Christ told the disciples in Matthew 4:19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” This was and is not accomplished by remaining silent.

God can use you in ways you don’t realize, understand, or maybe even conscious of. In Philemon Paul was making a plea to him regarding someone whom had wronged Philemon. Paul was also edifying him for he knew of his love for God and even had a local church meeting at his house. Paul was pleading for forgiveness for the one who had sinned against Philemon. When we speak with someone it should always reflect the love that Christ has instilled in us. These are accomplished through our deeds also. In 2 Corinthians 9:8-15  Paul is speaking of giving to the poor and sharing Christ with them in doing so; how the sharing of our faith through deeds all brings glory to Him. But it is accomplished in our daily routines of life also. Those every day meaningless tasks that occupy time can are even used by God to draw those surrounding you to Him. Nothing is wasted in every breath of your life if you live to glorify Christ. This life in pursuit of Him will not grieve, but please Him that lives within you.

 
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Posted by on April 11, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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