Month: August 2015

Responding to His Knock

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Mary Magdalene was a terrible sinner but she was forgiven from her past sins by Jesus as He cast 7 demons out of her.  She accepted all that He had to offer to her.  Following her deliverance, Mary Magdalene traveled with Jesus as one of his followers.  She was present at Jesus’ two most important moments: the crucifixion and the resurrection.  Based on what Jesus had done for her, Mary was brave enough to stand by Jesus in his hours of suffering, death and beyond. She had a true relationship with her Savior.
On the other hand, when it came to doctrine, Mary was not well schooled.  She certainly would be made to look foolish if challenged in doctrine by the Pharisees who were known for their knowledge of God.  But with all their knowledge about God, they did not know Jesus.  They did not have an intimate, saving relationship with Him.
The Holy Word teaches us that even the demons are profoundly knowledgeable about Jesus, but they do not know Him.  They certainly do not have an intimate relationship with Him.  Full knowledge of Jesus means nothing unless He knows us.  The only way that Jesus knows us (as in accepts us into His kingdom) is if we have accepted Him as Our Savior.  When we respond to Jesus’ voice and accept Him as Our Savior, then our relationship with Him springs forth for all eternity.

Let us go to the door and receive the One who knocks.  Let us open our hearts to Him.  Let us seek to have an intimate relationship with Our Savior King.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing us with a Savior.  We thank You for sending Your Son to this world so that all could know Him.  We thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to open our hearts so that we could receive Your Son as Our Savior.  We pray, Father, that You will teach us how to go beyond our knowledge of who You are and move into a living relationship with Your Son. May Jesus become the center of all we do.  May He know us.  We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

Drawing from the Vine

John 15:2
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Jesus is the vine.  Our Father in heaven is the vine keeper.  We are the branches.  Every branch is examined by Our Father.  Every branch that is not producing fruit because it does not draw what it needs from the vine is allowed to wither away.  Every branch that is producing fruit is pruned so that it may draw closer to the vine and its production may increase. 

Because we are born with no attachment to the True Vine, we have no hope of bearing fruit.  The Father in heaven is a wise husbandman.  In His mercy and loving kindness, He provides a way for us to be grafted into the True Vine.  Through His grace, He insures that we can draw from the essential elements of the Vine.

Nature provides a good example of this harvesting process.  A small tree rises from the soil and the farmer sees that it is a crabapple.  The farmer knows that the crabapple is healthy but it will never bear good fruit.  So the farmer grafts a golden delicious apple tree into the crabapple tree.  The new tree is now capable of bearing good fruit.  The roots, however, are still of the crabapple.  The roots will continue to produce crabapple shoots.  If the farmer does not prune the crabapple shoots, the new tree will not reach its potential for producing golden delicious apples.
So it is with us.  We were grafted into the body of Christ and given a new life by Our Savior.  The Holy Spirit indwells us to make sure that we are pruning away all of the sin from our old lives.  Unless we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not reach the fullness that Almighty God planned for us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for grafting us into Your kingdom through the sacrificial work of Your Son.  We rejoice that You have sent the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome the sin that we inherited and continues to rise up against us as we seek to live as new men and women in Christ.  We pray, Father, that You will provide the inspiration that we need to submit to the Holy Spirit and the strength that we need to stand against the enemy who comes to steal our fruit.  Through Your grace, may we see a full harvest from our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the True Vine.

The Finishing Work of the Master

Hebrews 12:5
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
Once we accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior, the Lord begins His work in us.  He promises that He will complete every good work in us.  He also promises that He will discipline us as needed to get us to the way, the truth and the life that is in Him.  He will leave no blemish untouched.
As the Lord works on us, we can think of ourselves as a piece of old furniture that needs refinishing.  Our old stain is no longer acceptable at the place where we will be displayed.  We need a new refined finish.  Our new finish cannot be applied until all of the old stain is removed.  The first part of our refinishing will be relatively easy as our old stain is stripped away.  This first step, however, will reveal the depth of the old stain.  This then leads to the tough part of the process.  To get rid of the stubborn stain will require sanding, scraping, chipping and maybe even gouging.  This tedious process will be repeated over and over until all the old stain is completely gone.  Only when all the stain has been removed completely will our final finish be applied.
God has various ways of completing His finishing work in our lives.  Sometimes it is by the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit, sometimes it is by our reading of His Word and sometimes it is by the spoken words of His ministers.  Often times He uses affliction and trials to bring us to acknowledge and confess our iniquities, to recognize our shortcomings in fulfilling our duties or to convince us of our folly in following our own nature.  All of these things are done through His perfect love and forgiveness.

Let us submit to the work of the Master.  After all, He is preparing us for a place in His house.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing us to join You for all eternity.  We bless the name of Jesus for His precious blood that He shed so that we may be washed clean of every stain of sin in our lives.  We bow before You, Father, in full surrender to Your good work in us.  We pray that You take us into Your hands and prepare us to stand before You in the image of Your Son.  We rejoice in knowing that we will be in service to You in Your house forever.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Our Seasons of Growth

Psalm 1:3
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
The changing of seasons is very easy to observe in nature.  The new growth of the spring is always preceded by the dying out in the winter. 
So it is in our growth as Christians.  The Lord allows us to go through trials and periods of distance from Him in our relationship with Him.  We must take care not to judge our lack of fruitfulness during our winter seasons.  The winter seasons are necessary.  How we respond during these periods of dying out determines the size and the fragrance of the new bloom coming in the spring.  

The more we let ourselves die to Christ in the winters of our lives, the greater will be the produce of our spring times.  The more we let ourselves live in the flesh in our winters, the lesser will be the produce of our spring times.  Let us seek the Holy Spirit to help us understand our seasons so that we are preparing properly for the harvest.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us seasons of growth in our relationship with You.  We rejoice in knowing that You have planned for us to go through these growing seasons with the Holy Spirit as our helper.  We pray, Lord, that when we enter into our winter periods of darkness that we may learn to respond to the checks of the Holy Spirit as we battle against the attacks of the flesh.  May Your strength be perfected in our weakness as we blossom in Your perfect light.  We ask all these things in the name of the Bright and Morning Star, Jesus Christ.

Turning Our Trials into Testimonies

Matthew 8:26
And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
One thing that we can all be certain of is that during the course of our lives we will encounter storms.  We can even expect at times that the winds and the waves of our personal storms will be overwhelming to us.  But the Lord, as He did with the apostles during their storms, challenges us to fear not and to live by faith in Him.

God expects us to be so confident in Him that in any crisis we are the reliable ones.  What a great statement we make to the world when we stand confidently and peacefully during our greatest times of trial.  When the worldly see us under stress with an utter lack of fear and uncertainty, how can they not be moved?
  
Let us commit to standing tall, resolute in our faith, when God allows us to be tried.  Why shouldn’t we?  Our most faithful Lord promises that He will provide us with the strength to endure.  As faithful Christians, when we respond with confidence in Our Lord’s promises to make us conquerors over all things, we turn our trials into wonderful testimonies to the world around us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the faith to face all of our trials with confidence in the victory that You will provide.  We praise You for sending Your Son to die on the Cross for us so that we can be victorious over all the evil that comes against us.  We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us so that we may live our lives in the fullness of the faith that You have given us.  May those around us be moved by our faith.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who is faithful and true, Jesus Christ.

Learning to Rely on The Lord

2 Kings 2:12
And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.  Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
Elisha had been forewarned that his master, Elijah, was going to be taken from him.  Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted from him before he was taken away.  Elisha asked for a double portion of the anointing that the Lord had placed on Elijah.  Elijah said that this was a huge request, but if Elisha witnessed his master being taken away by the Lord then his request was granted. 
Having gone through his final lessons from Elijah, Elisha saw Elijah taken away.  Elisha now stood alone.  In a show of extreme grief of having lost his master, he tore his clothes in two pieces.  He knew that he would no longer have his guide and leader to rely on.  But because he had asked for it, he was granted a double portion of the anointing that was held by Elijah.  Elisha would now rely on God, not on his master.
As Almighty God prepares us to spend eternity with Him, He may allow the people around us who we have relied upon to be taken from us.  It may be through death or through a broken relationship, but they will be removed in some manner.  Our Lord may also allow our finances or our things that we hold dear to be taken from us.  During these times, we must learn to rely on the Lord and not on the world around us.  Until we come to the point that we are totally reliant on God, He is likely to continue to remove people and things from our lives until we totally surrender to His reign in our lives.  Through it all we will learn the comfort, the power and the strength of resting in the hands of the One that created us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to rest in the comfort of Your hands as we go through our journey of surrendering completely to You.  We praise You for Your loving kindness and Your mercy as You never forsake us as we struggle to find our way.  We pray, Lord, that You will open our eyes so that we may begin to see all that You have prepared for us.  We beseech Your, Father, to grant us the fullness of the power and strength that You have set aside for us.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Ever Present Lord, Jesus Christ.

Finding Joy During Times of Unhappiness

2 Timothy 2:3
Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Surely there is no happiness in suffering.  No sane person chooses to suffer.  But to suffer for Christ’s sake is to have joy in all things.  To choose God’s will for our lives, even if it means suffering, is to have constant joy in our lives.  If we continue in God’s will as our suffering continues, our joy will increase even though our happiness may fluctuate.  Through it all, our resolution to suffer for Christ’s sake will become stronger and our love of God and Jesus Christ will increase.
If we view our suffering in any other way than through the will of God, our lives are guaranteed to be roller coaster rides with many highs and many lows.  On the other hand, if we keep our focus on Jesus through our suffering, our lives will be on steadied paths toward completed sainthood in heaven for all eternity.  Our lives will be filled with joy even in unhappy circumstances.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to overcome the suffering that the world brings us.  We bless the name of Jesus for bringing us joy even when everything around us in the world brings some level of unhappiness.  We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us to endure our trials so that our love for You and for Our Savior, Jesus, becomes greater with each moment that we endure our suffering.  As we find joy in Christ, we pray that our example will make others strong and mature in their relationship with You.  We ask all these things in the name of our suffering Savior, Jesus Christ.

Welcome to Heaven!!

Revelation 21:23
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
There is something different about the light at sunrise and the light at sunset.  The light at sunrise seems to welcome us to our day and inspire us to greater things.  The light at sunset seems so calming and comforting, preparing us for our evening of rest.  Yet there is nothing that carries us along and sustains us better throughout the day than a bright, sun-filled sky.  There is no question that light plays a significant role in our physical and emotional well being.

What if you woke up one morning and noticed a light filling your home that was more radiant and comforting than the most beautiful day that you had ever experienced?  What if when you got out of bed there were none of those usual aches and pains?  What if when you looked in the mirror you liked what you saw?  What if your unfriendly neighbor smiled and waved as you left for work?  What if your surly boss was kind and supportive?  What if your work for the day was perfectly satisfying, leaving you feeling wonderful?  What if throughout the day you felt an overwhelming since of being loved and a desire to share that love with others?  What if you could not resist delighting in the Lord non-stop all day long?  What if when the day ended there was no darkness, only that radiant and comforting light that you had first experienced in the morning?  What if this day never ended?  Welcome to heaven!!
Welcome to your new home for all eternity.  Rejoice in the presence of the Author and the Essence of everything that is good.  Delight in the absence of anything evil.  Heaven is all the best of every sunrise, every sunset and every sun-filled day.  Praise the Lord!!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing a place for us that is beyond our imagination.  We thank You for preparing us to fit perfectly in our new homes for all eternity.  We pray Father that You will draw us into intimate relationships with You here on earth, so that we can begin experiencing the fullness of who You are before we ever leave our earthly bodies.  May we become vessels of Your perfect love so that others can know You and be drawn to accept Your Son as their Savior.  May many experience the eternal home that You have prepared for Your children because they saw that radiant and comforting light coming from us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.

Making Prayer a Central Part of Our Lives

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
We have the opportunity and the privilege to communicate with the Creator, Our Creator, throughout the day.  We can have as many touch points with Almighty God as we would like.  Not only do we have the opportunity to call on Our Heavenly Father with our solicitations, we also have the opportunity to delight the Lord with our praise and worship.  After all, what father does not delight in the visitations of his children?  And what child does not delight in the comforts of a loving father?

Can we pray without ceasing?  Should we be on our knees all day?  Of course, the answer is no for multiple reasons.  If we tried to pray without stopping, our prayer time would in fact clash with other things that we are required to do.  We are required to worship God, we are required to serve others and we are required to meet the obligations of our vocation.  And, of course, we are required to meet all our physical needs for food, drink, sleep, rest and physical and mental refreshment.  We simply could not accommodate the basic requirements of our life if we were trying to pray all day.  Additionally, it should not be overlooked that we are totally incapable of bearing up to a regimen of prayer without ceasing.  Our spirits might be willing but our flesh would fail us miserably.  

Most importantly, God is not commanding us to pray without stopping.  What He is calling for us to do is make prayer a central part of our lives.  As we go through our day, let us make it a habit to mentally pray as we engage in the affairs of life.  May we continously seek the grace, strength and assistance that we need to stand up to the challenges of each day.  Let it be part of our lives to incorporate impromptu worship, praise and thanksgiving to God each time that we recognize His hand in helping us to overcome even the most mundane tasks.  Let us make Almighty God the main thread in the fabric of our lives. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that we can come to You at any time.  We rejoice in having access to Your throne.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to come to You throughout the day to praise You, to worship You and to thank You for the comforts and provision that we receive.  May we learn to make our constant interactions with You as normal as every breath that we take.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord Our Sanctifier.

The Riches and Glory of Jesus

Colossians 1:27
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God has chosen to reveal to us the riches that are available to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  The fullness of all of God’s riches are complete in Jesus.   Jesus Christ is the glory of the Gospel.  He is the author, the preacher and the subject of the Bible.  The glory of His wisdom and power, His truth and faithfulness, His justice and holiness and His love, grace and mercy are forever manifested in the Holy Word.

Yet all of this was a mystery to men for thousands of years.  The hope of glory for those living in earlier times was reliant on the offerings of their high priests.   How privileged we are as we live in a time when the hope of our glory has been fully disclosed to us.  Our hope is in the form of Our Savior who comes in dwells within us.  He is our high priest.  We need no other. 
With His indwelling, we take on the role of priests ourselves.  It becomes our duty to share the hope that is within us.  The blessed hope and assurance that is Jesus Christ is too precious not to share.  We should joyously share that which naturally flows from us without end.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Blessed Hope and Assurance that is Your Son, Jesus.  We praise You for revealing to us the riches that are available through Your Son, our ever present high priest.  Help us Lord to faithfully share the hope of glory that is within us.  We pray His presence will be manifested in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Glorious Lord, Jesus Christ.