Month: October 2014

Living by a Different Standard

Luke 6:28
Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

Strike back!  Respond in defense!  Prove that I am right!  All of these are natural human responses to conflict.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to follow a different standard.  “Love thy neighbor as thyself” requires a supernatural response when we run into personal conflict.  We are called to express the love of Christ in each instance.  This may require having to forgive the person in the heat of the conflict.  Only our strength through Jesus Christ allows us to meet this standard.

We do not need supernatural strength to respond in crisis.  Our human nature and our pride are generally sufficient.  But when it comes to facing the day-to-day conflicts in our lives, the supernatural grace of God is required.  It is through His grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we are able to consistently respond in a manner that reflects the discipline of a follower of Jesus Christ. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You loving us first so that we may love You and love those around us.  We thank You for the mercy that You extended to us through the redemptive blood of Your Son, Jesus, so that we may extend mercy to those who we come in conflict with us.  We thank You for forgiving us of our sins so that we may be able to forgive those who sin against us.  We pray, Father, for the grace and the strength to release to the world the overflow of the lovingkindness that You poured out on us.

Seeking the His Highness In All Things

1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Once we receive Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we are washed clean of our sins and made acceptable to take our place before the Father in heaven.  We receive what we did not earn and certainly do not deserve.  It is granted to us through the atoning work of Our Savior.  None is the result of our holiness.  

Our holiness is the holiness we receive when we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  Our holiness is the result of us allowing the life of Jesus to be manifested in our flesh.  Are we willing to let God do in us all that has been made possible by Our Savior?  Or are we resting content in the salvation that we have been granted without pressing into a relationship with the One who gave His life so that our salvation could be assured?  

Our salvation guarantees our place in heaven.  The relationship that we have with Our Savior will determine our position in heaven.  Both our place in heaven and our position in heaven are gifts from God.   But we must choose to receive them.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the eternal resting place that You have prepared for us.  We ask that we may receive the grace to fully recognize the perfect gift that we have been given and the unimaginable sacrifice that was required for us to be able to receive it.  We ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to choose to accept the fullness that is ours through Your Son, Jesus.  We ask that we will never be satisfied with our salvation alone, but that we will seek the highest level of all things that You have set aside for us. 

Under the Dominion of Christ the King

John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

The world is all about results.  Everything we are taught by the world directs us toward endless expenditures of our energy and our activities in an effort to produce something deemed valuable by the world itself.

Jesus’ royal power and authority have no origin in this world.  His standing with the Father is in no way furnished by earthly force, fleshly ordinances, physical energies, material wealth or imperial armies.  The dominion of Christ the King springs directly from the throne of Almighty God.  Every good thing that comes to us and flows through us is a result of our relationship with One who sits at the right hand of the Father.  

The Lord is all about process, not results.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to a process of building an intimacy with Our Savior.  From the depths of the relationship that we develop with Jesus, we will produce every good thing that we engage in under His dominion.  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day.  We thank You for every day that You have given us.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You here on earth and in heaven for all eternity.  We bless the name of Jesus who makes it possible for us to bear fruit that has value in Your kingdom.  We pray that through our relationship with Your Son that our every activity will give You the praise and glory that is Yours alone.

Focusing on the Fount of Living Water

3 John 1:7
Because that for His name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.

As we go through life, we deal with ordinary human stuff.  For most of us, the greater part of our days are filled with the labors that provide for us.  For all of us, the remainder of our days are portioned out for time with our families and loved ones, time for ourselves and perhaps time for service in our community.  All these things make up the fabric of our daily lives.

Where we should differ from the world as disciples of Jesus Christ is in our approach to our daily tasks.  Everything that we do each day should be dominated by our devotion to Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It is so natural to put all of our focus on the problems, the challenges and the opportunities in front of us each day.  It is so easy to reach out to what we think we know and what the world has to offer in order to address the issues of the day.  Jesus asks us to take nothing from the world.  He asks us to draw on Him and His indwelling Holy Spirit for our strength and our guidance.  

The choice to focus on and follow Jesus rather than the world becomes a very practical one.   Our Savior teaches us that following the flow of the Living Water will be a path of fruitfulness and joy.  He warns us that the fighting our way upstream on our own or with the help of the world will be fraught with failure and sorrow.  He promises us that if we are in communion with Him, the world will see and benefit from the natural outpouring of His Spirit within us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Your ways to us to through Your Son, Jesus.  We praise the name of Jesus for being the way, the truth and the life…for being all that we need in our lives.  We pray, Lord, that You will set us free from leaning on our own ways and the ways of the world.  We ask that You provide us the grace and the wisdom to walk in Your ways under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  May we become vessels of Your Living Water. 




Compassion of the Highest Order

John 19:26-27
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”

The compassion that Jesus Christ has for us is beyond our understanding.  His compassion goes beyond human capability.  His compassion extends to a level that only He, as the Son of Man and the Son of God, can personify.

His remarkable compassion was fully revealed to us on the Cross.  In His moments of agony and pain, as He was fulfilling all that He was called to do, as he was placed between thieves with soldiers gambling for His clothing, He called out to the Father, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  In His compassion, He recognized the frailty of all men and extended His perfect love and forgiveness.

Then in the final moments before His death.  He made sure that His mother was cared for.  He took the time to model that even in our highest calling that we have day-to-day challenges in our lives that must be dealt with.  Who but Jesus, could exhibit such personal compassion at the same time that He was taking on the sins of the world? 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your compassionate understanding of our frailty in the flesh.  We bless the name of Jesus who came and lived in the flesh so that we could see how to live both in our highest calling and in our day-to-day responsibilities of caring for our families, our loved ones and those placed around us.  We pray that we will be forever mindful of Our Compassionate Savior as we go through the trials of our lives.  May we extend the fullness of His compassion for us to the world.

The Greater Work That is Prayer

John 14:12
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Most of us will never set foot on foreign soils in an effort to win souls.  Nor will we step to a podium to stir a great revival.  So what are these greater works that we will do when we believe in Jesus?

The answer is certainly different for each one of us as God has created each of us with a unique plan for our lives.  In our own individual ways we will be called to be laborers in the field bringing light to the world of darkness around us.  We may be called to serve the poor.  We may be called to lead a bible study.  Who knows, we may even be called to a ministry of healing and deliverance.  But in all of the various ways that we are called, there will always be one element of our works that will be the same and that is the work of prayer.

Jesus was our role model is this regard.  He never attempted any work without going to the Father first in prayer.  Prayer was one of His greater works as He went to the Father to have His power and His purpose released.  One could argue that prayer is the greatest work that we will do as we go to the Father to have His power and His purpose for us released in our lives. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for making us vessels for Your perfect Light to be released in the darkness of the world around us. We bless the name of Jesus for showing us the way in which we should approach the purpose for our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that we can share in Your good work by accessing through prayer the power and authority of Your Son.  We pray, Father, that the greater works of the Son will be released in our lives as we seek You and surrender to Your plan for our lives through our prayers.

Love Without Bounds

1 John 2:2
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for the sins of all of mankind.  In this one act, we see the perfect love and the perfect forgiveness of both the Father and the Son.   

When we receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as Our Savior, we are receiving the fullness of His perfect love and forgiveness.  We also receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who instills in us this perfect love and forgiveness to share with the world around us.

As it is with the Father and the Son, we are to withhold love and forgiveness from no man.  We should not withhold even the smallest portion from any man anywhere. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the unlimited flow of love and forgiveness that comes from Your Throne.  We bless the name of Jesus for becoming sin for every man so that we all could receive the eternal gift of salvation.  We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will guide us as we learn to become free flowing vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask for the grace to overcome all bitterness, anger and unforgiveness in our lives so that we may in no way hinder the provision of Your love in the world around us.

For His Pleasure and His Glory

Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  

Jesus proclaimed His authority over all things before He told His disciples to go out to all nations.  He wanted them to know that He was with them every step of the way.  He wanted them to know that there would be no day nor hour in which He was not present with them.  He wanted them to know that there was nothing that could not be accomplished through Him.  He wanted them to know that He wanted to accomplish His work through them.

What He did not say to the disciples was, “Thanks, I could not do this without you.”  God can accomplish His plans without any help from us.  If we are not obedient in doing the things that He asks us to do, the loss is not His.   He will find a replacement to do His good work because He loves to use His children to accomplish His work.  It brings great pleasure and glory to Him. 

But if we are not obedient to the things that He asks us to do, it is our loss.  The work that we do for the Lord is more about our sanctification process than the results of our work.  Who we are in Christ is defined by our obedience to His calling.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the privilege of serving You on this earth.  We rejoice in knowing that we bring You great pleasure and glory when we do Your good work.  We pray, Father, that You will open our eyes so that we may see the ways in which You are calling us to serve You.  We pray, Lord, that You will prepare our hearts to surrender to Your will for our lives.  May all that we do be for Your pleasure and Your glory.

Mature Enough to Handle the Harvest

Exodus 2:11
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

Every man is called to lead his family spiritually.  We are all called to lead others spiritually in some manner.  When the fullness of the calling hits, we soon realize how ill equipped we are for the work and how ill prepared those around us are to receive us.

At this point when we have received God’s calling and are responding to it, God begins to do His good work in us.   Then something strange happens.  We have the vision and a very clear understanding of what needs to be done, but like Moses, we feel like we have been left out in the wilderness.  It seems as if God is ignoring us.

In actuality, the opposite is true.  God is fully and perfectly engaged in our lives.  His plan is to discipline us so that we are focused on Him and not on our vision.  When our focus is corrected, the fruit of the vision is released.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your perfectly patient hand in our lives.  We thank You for taking us through our wilderness experiences in order to draw us closer to You.  We bless the name of Jesus who carries us through our discouragement.  We praise His Holy Name as He releases the fruit of our lives when we are mature enough in our relationship with Him to handle the harvest.

Walking With Almighty God

Genesis 5:24
Enoch walked with God;

“Enoch walked with God.”  How cool would that be?  At any given time, just dial up the ruler and creator of the universe and invite Him for a walk.  Impossible, you say.  Unimaginable, you claim.

Yet beyond what seems logical to us, it is absolutely within our reach to dial up Almighty God.  The only issue is that to connect we have to be on the same line.  We can only get on the same line by disconnecting from all the other lines of distraction that we are dialed into.  A lot of work to be done there, but well worth the effort.  Spiritual truth awaits.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for granting us the privilege to be alone in Your presence.  We praise You for making Your throne accessible to us.  We bless the name of Jesus for dying on the cross for us so that we are worthy to come before You.  We pray, Lord, that You would teach us how to shed the distractions of the world long enough that we could find time for You alone.  May we all learn to rejoice in complete comfort in Your sweet presence.