Month: January 2016

Compelled to Serve the Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 9:16
For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Not everyone is called in the same manner that Paul was called.  It is certain, in fact, that most of us were not called to stand in the pulpit to preach the gospel.  It is just as certain, however, that every one of us has been called to live the gospel and to serve our Master in the manner in which He has called us. 
There will be no peace in our hearts if we take a different direction than the one the Lord set aside for us.  Just as Paul was compelled to preach, we are compelled to proclaim the gospel through our obedient response to Our Lord’s calling on our lives.  To neglect the calling of God on our lives shows contempt for the divine will of the Father and opens us up to the torment of a wounded conscience.

If we are gifted with a beautiful singing voice, we should be using it for God’s glory.  If we are gifted with organizational skills, we should be using them to help with the administration of the church.  If we have been given teaching skills, we should be leading bible studies.  The list goes on and on.  There are no skills that cannot be used by God for the advance of His kingdom.  We should search for guidance from the Holy Spirit to find out the skill or skills that God has planned uniquely for each of us.  If we neglect the calling that God has placed on our lives, we may not face His wrath, but we are likely to lose the gifts that He has blessed us with.  

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us unique skills so that we can be vital parts of the Body of Christ.   We pray that You will help us discover and develop our identity in Christ.  May Your Holy Spirit guide us and train us in our calling.  May we find peace of mind and great satisfaction in our service to Your Kingdom.  We ask these things in the name of the Head over all things, Jesus Christ.

The Only Way to Know Our Father in Heaven

John 8:19
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

During the time of Jesus, the collaboration of one or more witnesses was required to establish the truth in any matter.  The Pharisees were taunting Jesus, insinuating that He had no witness to the truth that He was the Son of God.  They were blindly calling for a testimony in the flesh to confirm a divine truth.

With pity and patience, Jesus convicted them of their own shortcoming.  He pointed out to them that He was all the proof that they needed that He was the Son of God.  He emphasized that if they could not see that He was who He said He was, they would never know His Father.  This was a claim that enraged the self-righteous Pharisees. 

If we try to have head knowledge of who God is and define our relationship with Him without a relationship with His Son, we will end up in the same place as the Pharisees.  If we try to use our own logic and the testimony of what the world offers to determine our relationship with Almighty God, we will miss out entirely on having an intimate relationship with Our Creator. 

Fortunately, Our Creator is completely aware of our weakness.  Through His grace, His loving kindness and His mercy, He provides the Holy Spirit to leads us into an intimate relationship with His Son, Our Savior.  If we follow the supernatural guidance and urgings of the Holy Spirit and surrender completely to a relationship with Jesus Christ, we will experience the unimaginable peace and joy of an eternal relationship with the Father and the Son. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to know You through Your Son, Jesus.  May we learn to reject the need to define You and our relationship with You by the world’s standards.  We pray that our minds will be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that we will come to know you intimately through our relationship with Your Son.  We ask all these things in the name of the brightness of Your glory, Jesus Christ.

Receive the Holy Spirit

John 20:22
And with that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
It was the evening of the first day of the week.  The disciples, fearing the Jews after the crucifixion of their Master, were meeting behind locked doors.  With the appearance of Jesus, they were at once at peace.  But then a greater thing happened, Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit.  All that had been gathered in the room in fear suddenly began a supernatural life which is unique to Christians alone.  They were sent forth to continue the work that Jesus had been sent to do by His Father.

As the New Year begins, how many of us are sheltering ourselves away from the world?  How many of us are letting our fears hold us back from doing the work that Jesus was sent to do?  Do we not recognize that the same power that was given to the early disciples is also given to us?

Let us begin our new year under the guidance of Our Comforter, the Holy Spirit.  He has been given to us to instruct us and empower us to do the work of the Father.  He has been sent to supernaturally strengthen us.  He comes along side of us to provide the power and protection that we need to overcome the enemy, the world around us or even our own flesh that is trying to bring us down.
We can be sure that we will encounter some failure.  In all likelihood, our failures will come from the fact that we have turned once again to rely on our own strength.  We must be continously aware that our own strength will never be enough to meet the demands and challenges of this world.  Our strength must come from the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that He gives us.  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Holy Spirit to come along side of us to be our counselor.  We praise the name of Jesus who defeated all evil when He died on the Cross so that we could defeat the evil that comes against us.  We pray that you will teach us to accept our utter failure without Christ.  Help us to realize our best will never be good enough until we are cleansed by the blood of Our Savior and receive His Holy Spirit into our lives.  Help us Father to build our lives on the Rock that is Jesus Christ.  May the Holy Spirit embolden and strengthen us to do the work of the Son.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. 

Waiting on the Working Power of God in Our Lives

Psalm 130:5
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
In our society, patience is a lost virtue.  Everybody wants satisfaction instantly.  Nobody is willing to wait on anything.  This may be especially true at the start of a new year as many of us have such strong intentions of getting our new year off to a good start.  Each of us is anxious to jump into the new year to get on with our perceived new paths to being more productive and more prosperous.
This rush to get things done is in direct opposition to how Our Heavenly Father works.  No single thing is done in His kingdom until everything is in perfect order for the perfect result.  This is especially true in our lives.  The Lord does not want us to advance until He has prepared us and our surroundings properly.  If we try to move ahead of God’s plan, we will meet heartbreak and disappointment.
From a human perspective, we can make a lot of good decisions in our lives without God.  We can also accomplish a lot things deemed good by the world without God.  We cannot, however, accomplish anything of real kingdom value without placing our reliance on Our Heavenly Father and waiting on Him to direct us through His Holy Spirit.  In order to be deemed good and faithful servants, we must learn to wait on the Lord in all things.  We must learn to wait on His grace and the working of His power in our lives.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for working all things in our lives for our good when we trust in You.  We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to be with us always to remind us to lean on You and not on ourselves.  We pray, Lord, that you will give us the patience to wait on you.  We ask that You show us how to be still in the valley as you prepare the mountain top for us and those that You have given us to serve.  We rejoice in Your faithfulness.  We ask all these things in the name of Your Son, Jesus, who did nothing without knowing He was operating in Your will.

Understanding the Inconceivable Mysteries of Almighty God

Job 11:7
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?  Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

As human beings, we have all been given some level of learning, understanding, wisdom and insight. But is it possible for us to know God fully?  Is it possible for us to understand the riches and inconceivable perfection of Almighty God?  Is it possible for us to grasp the mind of the Lord?

All the head knowledge in the world cannot prepare us to fully understand the essence of Almighty God and His plan for the world.  Yet Our Heavenly Father reveals the deepest mysteries to even the most simple minded through His Holy Word and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Our challenge is to let go of our reliance on the words of man and grab on to the living words of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
Of course, we need to set aside quiet time if we want to hear what God wants to say to us.  We have to prepare ourselves through the reading and study of the Bible.  We have to find a time and place where we shut out the clamor of the world and just listen.  

It can be helpful to open our quiet time with a simple question, “Father, what do you want to say to me today?”  He is waiting for us to welcome Him into our lives so that He can reveal all of His mysteries to us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are always with us, ever ready to speak to us and ever ready to hear our prayers.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us in finding and setting aside a quiet time and place to study Your Holy Word and to commune with You each day.  Lord, may we learn to delight in Your Word and delight in Your presence.  We ask that through Your Holy Spirit that we learn how to experience the revelations of who You are.  Through Your grace, may we begin to understand all of Your wonderful mysteries.  We pray these things in the name of the living revelation of Your Word, Jesus Christ.

Obedience to the Divine Call of Almighty God

Hebrews 11: 8
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.  He went without knowing where he was going. 
What an amazing example of living in faith is provided by the story of Abraham.  It was a great step of faith for Abraham to leave his family and his homeland in response to God’s calling on his life.  He did not even know where God was leading him.  Yet he faithfully followed the path that the Lord laid out for him.  And for his simple act of faith, he became the father of all nations.

Abraham was called out of his own country.  He was called away from his family.  He was called away from his father’s house.  He was called from the only culture that he knew.  It can be quite similar for us when God calls us.  He calls us away from relatives, friends and acquaintances.  He calls us away from the neighbors and neighborhoods where we find our comfort.
God calls each of us to take simple steps of faith.  As we respond obediently, He puts before us the next step which usually requires a little more faith in Him and letting go of faith in ourselves.  We may not become a father of a nation by yielding to our calling, but we will surely gain more than we ever imagined.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for having a unique plan for each of us.  We rejoice in knowing that the reward that You have prepared for us if we respond to Your calling is beyond our imagination.  We pray, Father, that you will give us the strength and guidance to follow the path that you have laid out for each of us.  Even though we may not know our destination, Lord, may your Holy Spirit keep us steadfast in our journey to stand before you in the image of Your Son.  We pray these things in the precious name of the author of our faith, Jesus Christ.

Hope for Our Nation in the New Year

Romans 5:5
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

What better way to start the New Year than to proclaim our hope in Jesus Christ.  Hope in the promises of Our Savior will never fail us.  Hope in Our Savior will never disappoint us.  Hope in Our Savior will result in nothing short of us spending eternity in bliss under the glory of Almighty God in the company of the gathering of saints.
Yet in our society today, we find it often regarded as shameful to proclaim hope in Jesus Christ.  In Paul’s writings to the Romans, he prepares us for these times as he establishes that there is to be no shame in following and putting our eternal hope in Jesus Christ.  I could never have imagined that there would be a time when this teaching would be relevant here in the United States of America.  Yet here we are. 
Christians are mocked daily on talk shows, news shows and entertainment shows.  To publicly stand for the very truths given to us by Our Heavenly Father makes us bigots, haters, etc.  Now more than ever, we are called to share our good news with the world around us.  The hope that we have in Christ is the only hope left for our beloved nation.  Let us wait not a minute longer to proclaim our personal and national hope in Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this new year that You have given us.  We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom we need to see through false teaching and the strength that we need to stand against the folly that this world is trying to get us to accept.  We pray also, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will give us the courage we need to boldly present the “way, the truth and the life” that is in your Son, Jesus.  We ask this in His precious, holy and mighty name.