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SALT

15 Mar

SALT

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Salt is used many times to describe how a Christian should live in the bible. We are told to be “the salt of the world.” Salt is a fascinating and deep word study, and we all understand it’s application properties of enhancing the flavor of food. The application properties of it as a Christian are viewed primarily as bringing Christ’s Light into the world through our lives, and how He flavors those that we influence. There are different theological lines on how we are to flavor it, but once we possess that Salt, we are assured that our influences are being effected. How you conduct yourself every day is how you salt those that come into contact with you.

The more we value the “stuff” here in the world, the more we expose ourselves to it, the more our salt will tend to loose it’s flavor. If we are drawn to the world and place more value on it thank our relationship with Christ, do we possess the salt? “Remember Lot’s wife”(Luke 17:32).  Christ warns us in His telling us of the end of times. Spend time daily in keeping your salt pure through time in God’s Word. The salt of the gospel of Christ through His holy word, are the salt upon which we are all saved. The Word of God has the ability to penetrate you like none other, to convict or uplift you. 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.  Time spent with Him, will allow Him, to use you to add flavor to those around you every day.

 
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Posted by on March 15, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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I just don’t go……

14 Mar

I believe, I just don’t go to church

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

“I believe, I just don’t go to church.” In your homes every day as a Christian disguised as a repairman, it amazes me how much I hear this. It always goes back to some experience, an event where Satan has caused division in the church and in your heart for the assembling of believers and the power that comes with it. “Consider one another” above is speaking of how we are not to think only of ourselves, but those who are struggling also. We are all beat down by the world all week and need that encouragement that our brothers and sisters who are dealing with the same, can deliver through how God has worked in our lives. God can deliver a direct word of encouragement to you through a brother or sister when you surround yourself with them on a regular basis.

You cannot do Christianity alone. You will become full of pride and you will fall at some time. Ecclesiastes 4:10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. God is working in all of us, and He is using that work, to encourage each other believer. How many times have you shared, and the receiver has told you that was exactly what they needed to hear? That happens when believers gather to exhort each other, and praise His holy name. Psalm 42:4 “I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise.” The uplifting of your spirit in a time of gathered praise together, with your arms in the air and your joyful heart poured out to God, is the power to face another week He charges you with. You learn the Gospel Truth, the applications to what you are facing, and the ability to share how God can use you where you find yourself six other days a week.

 
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Posted by on March 14, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Perspective Change

13 Mar

Today is a marker in God changing my life. I won’t go into the long story, but becoming obedient and putting Him before all, the top of my list of priorities. My plans have changed as a result of Him changing my perspective of life, temporal and eternal, and which matters most.

 

 

Perspective Change

Jeremiah 29:11-13   For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

James 4:13-15  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. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” We all have our plans, we all have our ideas of what we hope our futures will bring. We work hard, we strive to attain the goal, then change comes. It may come in the way of termination, or it may come in the way of perspective, but when it comes how do you respond? Do you embrace it with the understanding you are not in control, or do you begin the fight?

In Jeremiah above, God is ensuring all of us the hope that He places within us of eternal security. When we seek Him and understand that He is guiding our paths, we begin to gain a peace and hope of the future, not a dread of it. I do believe many in our midst with the world economy have seen their well laid plans changed drastically. As a result of those changes God is giving you the prompting to draw nearer to Him, or your pride can step in and run from Him. If you will humble yourself and seek Him as in Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.‘  Let go and let God lead. This is the voice of experience, for I too was that prideful one who planned on doing things my way, until my perspective was changed. Thank you Jesus.

 
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Posted by on March 13, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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What is the meaning of Life to you?

12 Mar

What is the meaning of Life to you?

Ecclesiastes 1:2   “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

Ecclesiastes was written by the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon. In this book he even gathered wise counsel to gain increased understanding of the meaning of life, the question that dwells inside us all, believers or not. In verse 3:11 we learn that “He put eternity into our hearts.” God placed that need that dwells from deep within to draw us to Him. We search and search for happiness, success, and meaning to fulfill that desire, yet when they are attained without, they still seem lacking. Until that void is filled, true happiness will never be attainable, but always just out of our reach however we pursue the thing. Verse 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

Vanity in this book means a “breath” or “vapor” which speaks of life as quickly passing away. It is found 38 times in this book, and is a key point to understanding Ecclesiastes. Once we learn how to possess that hope for eternity with God, our short time here can truly be enjoyed for we realize our security in eternal paradise. The trials of every day life in our personal and work environments will not carry the weight they once did before our understanding of this temporal life. That release of our lives to God, releases the burden we now carry trying to satisfy that question of the meaning of life. He has and He IS, the answer. John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Use Me

11 Mar

Use me

John  12:38-41    that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.
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Christ was teaching in His last days of the scriptures being fulfilled again from the prophet Isaiah where the hard hearted prideful would not see Him for who He is. Christ was in their midst performing signs and wonders of God, yet they could not see, and were fulfilling what Isaiah has spoken of  hundreds of years prior. Isaiah was called to a discouraging ministry by God, for he was told the more he proclaimed the word of God, the less response he would get. But he was also promised that there were a small percentage of people that did hear him, did understand, and God was going to use them to bring Christ into the world.

Have you heard of the brave prayer to pray is “God use me”, and to be prepared for what He may call you to do? Isaiah had this vision and in Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” What God reveals to you as a result of those prayers, may not be grand in your eyes, but it may be glorious in His, and if you obey it will bring glory to Him. We are called only to faithfulness to Him and His word, and to be obedient to the call itself. Isaiah could not see what God planned to do with the remnant of people that were hearing His word, but Isaiah could be faithful and let God work out the details of His plans through him. Have a humble heart, pray that prayer, and be obedient to the call that he places on you. You too can be another Isaiah if you remain faithful to what you feel God stirring in your heart, and begin proclaiming the truth in a world far from it.

 
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Posted by on March 11, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Priceless

10 Mar

Priceless

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

How many times were you about and saw a penny lying on the ground, but it seemed unworthy to take the effort to lean down and pick it up? I mean it is only a penny, not a $100 bill right? How much effort was it really worth? I seriously doubt that you would lay down your life, or ask your son to lay down his for the sake of it. But look at what God did for you while you were still living in sin in Romans 5:8 above. What if we are that penny? 1 Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. We are worth so much more to God. Look at all the promises He makes to us in Luke 12:22-32.

The Message translates Romans 5:7 “We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.” We can grasp the nobility in dying for a cause, but what if they were living far from our cause, and opposing it consistently? Wouldn’t we consider it a waste of our time and move on? That realization of what God has truly done for you in the greatest act of love EVER, should move you to a humble heart out of thankfulness of the eternal forgiveness He provided while you are still in sin. John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Thank you Jesus!

 
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Posted by on March 10, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Christ – Death & Taxes

09 Mar

I was listening to Dr. Adrian Rogers speak Wednesday of Hebrews 11, and I found myself there today. What a great chapter in the bible of the patriarchs of great faith. Those men and women who had stepped way outside the box of understanding and seen the power of God and the blessing of God as a result. Somewhere during this I felt led to the promise of Him never leaving us…….I love how God works when we spend time in His word. Thank you Jesus for that eternal security that only you can provide.

 

 

Christ – Death & Taxes

Deuteronomy 31:6  Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

We have all heard the only two things we can count on are death and taxes. While truth lies in that statement, there is another, and they are numbers two and three. We can count on Christ never leaving us above all. Death will come unknowingly, and taxes are the largest variable for us all. But Christ and the Holy Spirit we are given are promised even from the first book in the bible to never leave us.  Genesis 28:15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Christ’s promises ring throughout the Old and New Testaments.

We live in a society that is volatile, unsure, and constantly evolving right now. Not even the stability of jobs in large corporations is available any longer for they have only become corrupt on a larger scale. All of this volatility breeds selfishness and wanting more, doing whatever brings happiness for the time, the security of the moment, yet insecurity in the future. We live in a state of fear of tomorrow and beyond. But look at the promise and security for eternity that you can rest on in Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” In a world that is crumbling before you, you can possess an eternal security they can never kill or tax. You can live today in a peace they do not understand, but desire. It is all found through Christ and His Spirit that He places in you upon Salvation, that you are eternally secure and promised a paradise with Him once this world passes away. Where else can you find a promise such as this?

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Special time in my secret place

08 Mar

It would be hard for me to express, what my labor of love is like here in these writings every morning now for going on three months. Some days are difficult, some easy, but they all have come through His provision, and my diligent pursuit. This morning was easy for I awoke with “secret place” just streaming through my thoughts. It was crystal clear that was where God wanted me today, sharing my glue that holds me together. These devo’s have come as a result of probably six years ago saying “I have got to read my bible every day.” That building of a habit, that started at maybe a verse or two, has turned into these and my calling from God. One of my closest friends told me, “If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will keep getting what you have been getting.” Those few words speak volumes. If you are unhappy with your God, ask yourself how much time have you been spending with Him. Are you getting out, what you have been putting in? To experience a change, make one first. Your life will never be the same…….I promise.

 

 

Special time in my secret place

Psalm 91:1-2   He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”

What do you do, where do you go, what do you lean on to get you through this thing called life? We all have a “go to” for escape, to recharge our batteries to face the day. It could be a sport, a book, entertainment, and hopefully not alcohol or drugs as I did for years. Now for me it is my time alone with God early every morning where I recharge. There is something special about the silence of the early day and hearing the voice of God. Matthew Henry put it well, “he acquaints himself with inward religion, and makes heart-work of the service of God, worships within the veil, and loves to be alone with God, to converse with him in solitude.” I simply cannot face the day, without facing God in prayer and His Word every morning.

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. I do believe it is biblical for early morning time with God, for all throughout the bible it is spoken of. If there was only one thing I could say to a believer, it would be to spend daily time with God, for everything else will fall into place as a result of it. You will never truly abide in Him, hear His voice, discern His will for your life until you humbly seek Him every day. Once He sees that reverence that you place on your daily time with Him, your relationship will grow as never before. You will have no trouble arising from bed early, for your heart will have that expectation of a conversation with God.

 
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Posted by on March 8, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Stresses and Strains

07 Mar

I am under a huge stress and strain myself right now. Being stretched to my mental limits in many ways, being pulled down many roads, many of them difficult in ways I cannot describe here. All of these culminate in how I feel every day. By the end of the day, I am mentally spent, and many time retreat to bed. But the glue, the Enabler, is right here every morning very early with God. If it were not for my glue, I would be back to my old ways, back to how I dealt with the stresses of life. This time every day enables me to recharge to face the battles and enemies of the day with the strength He has given me to start the day. You can have it too!

 

Stresses and Strains

 

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

 

We all feel and deal with the pressures of life every day. These pressures effect how we handle every situation that we encounter every moment of every day. The stress of the first pressure wells into the next encounter, and may well into the remainder of the day depending on the stress of the first situation. It falls into the “more to see, than what you see” understanding. Much of what arises is the forks in the road, which deflect our well thought out plans so it seems. Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps. God’s direction for our lives most likely will take a different path than we would intend, but that will enable us to reach where He intends, that which we alone could not attain.

 

Satan will try to thwart God’s plans for us by many means, both by evil and many ways that which seem to make us feel good about ourselves, but do they take our eyes off Christ? Satan is the pinnacle of deception, but always motivated to “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). The key to discerning the deception is spending time with God and taking all things to God. The more time you spend, the greater the discernment you are given. Jeremiah 33:3 Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. When we take all our trials of life to Him in prayer and His Word, He will open our eyes, and we will hear Him in our hearts. All things happen for a reason, and they all pass through His hands. Romans 5:3-5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Do you have a heart to hear?

06 Mar

Such an awesome morning with God, wishing I did not have to stop. Ohhhh how I hope you will respond to that instant when He knocks at your door. It is never too late, until it is.

 

 

 

Do you have a heart to hear?

1 Corinthians 1:18  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Do you have an ear to hear? When you hear things of God, do you immediately put up a wall, or does something first stir inside you before put up your fight, or your reasoning for dismissal? That instant, that second of stirring before your pride steps in, is God knocking at your door. If you never have that second of curiosity, then my prayer is that one day you will.  We are told in 1 Corinthians 2:14 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. God must first seek you, and you must respond, as an act of free will to His invitation by humbling yourself before Him. These things are the first things to changing your life for an eternity.

The revelation of that stirring inside you, that the Creator of the universe is pursuing you, should provoke humility and acceptance on it alone. How could you deny the one whom breathed the stars into existence, and life into your lungs? How could pride step in and deny that stirring you feel is greater than Him? 1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us. With the understanding of Whom is knocking at the door of our souls, comes an eternal gift of spiritual wisdom from the Holy Spirit that will reside in you, and reveal God to you for eternity. Your ears will be opened through the ability to hear the voice of God in your heart, not entering as all the static this world brings to our ears. Do you have a heart to hear?

 
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Posted by on March 6, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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