Month: July 2016

The Pathway Out of the Barren Desert

Isaiah 35:8
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.
Each day’s news and headlines confirm that from a spiritual perspective the earth is a den of iniquity, a vast barren desert.  It is a rare case indeed when holiness can be found in the news.  Looking forward, the content of the news is not likely to improve but to get worse and more hopeless.  The social and political systems of mankind are offering nothing that will change things.  As time moves forward, the barren desert is converting to a total wasteland through the ongoing deterioration of the morals of mankind. 
There is a way of escape, however.  There is a pathway that offers hope for anyone and everyone who takes it.  The way out of the barren desert is through Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  Because Jesus took His place on the Cross as part of the Father’s will for His life, we as the redeemed children of God can stand up and find victory in the most difficult of circumstances.
Although our flesh will fight us, by the Word and Spirit of Christ, we that are spiritually blinded by the world can be enlightened.  We that are spiritually deaf to the calls of God can be made to hear them readily.  We that are struggling in service can be made active and joyfully productive.  We that find it difficult to speak of God or to God can have our lips opened to bring forth His praise.  We that find it hard to love one another can have our hearts filled with the perfect, loving forgiveness of Our Father in heaven.  Most importantly, we that stand alone against the world can find victory in all things of this earth, no matter how trying, if we all stand together in Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus Christ.  We thank You for loving us first, so that we may love You and abide in Your will for our lives.  We pray that You enlighten us and strengthen us so that we may see and follow the way that You have set aside for us as individuals and as a worldwide community.  May Your grace be upon us so that we may be living founts of Your love and holiness to be shared with the world around us.  May the world be changed as we all stand together united with Our Savior.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Refuge from the Storm, Jesus Christ.

A Perfect Vision for Our Lives

Isaiah 35:7
The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.  Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.
The prophet Isaiah was given a vision of what Israel was to become.  It was his job to try to inspire the people to attain the vision that God had given Him.

To have a vision is to see the completed work before it is even started.  Visionaries are able to see the completed work and to devise a plan to reach the desired end.  Almighty God is the essence of what any visionary would hope to be.  He knows the beginning and the end of all things on this earth.  He has every single element of the time line of earth and the people on it planned out to the smallest degree – in far greater detail than we could ever even imagine.

From a human perspective, no visionary is successful without finding believers who will execute his or her plans.  From a supernatural perspective, Almighty God is the perfect visionary who needs no one to execute His visions.  Yet it is His vision that all of His believers will be the ones who carry out His divine plans.  It is His will that His power and glory are revealed to the world through His believers.
Our Heavenly Father has a vision for each of our lives.  He sets His vision for our lives into place before we were even born.  Being the perfect visionary that He is, He insures that each of us is prepared for our part in His vision.   He is never in a rush to complete His work – only to perfect His work.  We are His work.  We are His vision.  Our Heavenly Father refuses to see us in any other light except in the image of His Son.  There is no other outcome that He would allow other than the perfect outcome that He has planned for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating us with perfect plans for our lives.  We thank You for Your patience as You take us through life’s struggles in order to shape us according to Your perfect plans.  We thank You that Your hand never leaves us as we stray away from Your plans for our lives.  We pray, Father, that You will teach us to humbly accept the trials of our lives which are shaping us for our roles in Your kingdom.  We beseech You for the grace that we will need to have the patience and persistence required to allow us to be molded by your plans.  May we bring honor and glory to You, Father, by abandoning the folly of our own plans and choosing Your ways instead of our own.  We ask all these things in the name of the Refiner and Purifier, Jesus Christ.

Leaving Every Concern and Trial at the Throne of God

Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
Jesus tells us to give Him our burdens and He will give us rest.  God promises to give us the desires of our hearts if we delight in Him.  The peace and joy of our Christian life will be determined by the constant application of our belief and faith in God’s Holy Word.
If we choose to involve God selectively in our lives, we can expect that the fulfillment of His promises will only be partial.  It is in the full submission to Jesus Christ’s lordship in our lives that we experience the fullness of God’s grace.  It is by putting God first in all things that we experience the joy that the world cannot provide.
To delight in God is as much a privilege as a duty.  He has not promised to gratify the appetites of our flesh, but the desires of our new spirit in Christ.  What are the desires of a new man in Christ?  They are to know, love and serve the Lord, to cast our burdens upon Him and to leave everything else to Him.  He will bring to pass all that He has in His will for us that we have committed to.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace in our lives.  We praise You with every breath because each breath is a gift from You.  We seek to turn over every decision in our lives to You.  We seek to leave every trial and concern at Your throne.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will instruct us in the ways of complete surrender to Our Savior, Jesus.  May the world around us be drawn to You by witnessing the joy in our lives as we place all of our trust in You.  We ask all these things in the name of Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord Our Provider, Jesus Christ.

Happy Are Those That Trust in the Lord

Matthew 6:34
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
God has a perfect plan and purpose for our lives.  He commands us not to fret or worry about our circumstances.  He promises that He will work out all things for our eternal good if we seek first His kingdom.  It is His plan that we come to Him daily with our prayers so that He may give us the strength we need to overcome our trials and so that He may set a hedge for us against the temptations that will be flung our way.
We must seek to find hope and joy in our circumstances as we learn to trust in God to fulfill His promises in our lives.  We should avoid seeing ourselves trapped by our worldly trials.  Instead, we should seek the comfort and peace of seeing ourselves gripped firmly in the hand of God – the only secure place in the universe.
Let us rejoice in the Lord Our God and allow ourselves to trust completely in all that He makes available to us through His Son, Jesus.  Happy are those that trust in the Lord.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for being the author and finisher of our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that Your hand is always upon us as long as we abide in You.  Teach us, Father, how to look past our troubles in this world and look to the source of our solutions, Jesus Christ.   We pray that our focus will always be on Our Savior and not on our problems.  We ask all these things in the name of Our All Sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

Why the Trials are Worth the Effort

James 1:4
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
As parents, we stood by the side of our children as they learned to ride a bike.  We picked them up and consoled them each time they fell.  We brought attention to the errors of their ways and reminded them of the the right ways to ride.  We went out with them time and again, rejoicing in each moment of progress, until they had mastered the skill of riding.  The process required the patience of the parent and the child.  The reward certainly made the trials worth the effort.
Thank the Lord for His salvation promise to complete every good work that He starts in us.  He will let nothing in our lives escape His attention.  He will steadfastly stand by us even as we stumble over and over.  He will pick us up as many times as we fall, even though He knows that we will never get it completely right on this earth.  He will continue to show us the error in our ways and point out the path that He has set aside for us.  He will continue to pick us up until that glorious day when we stand before Him in the image of His Son and He welcomes us into heaven as good and faithful servants.
May we learn to be patient with the process of sanctification.  May we find joy in the constant grace that Our Father extends to us.  May we prepare ourselves for the perfection in glory that is coming.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, blessed be the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.  Thank You for His steadfast work in our lives.  We pray that we will be quick to see the error in our ways and be even quicker to respond to Your correction.  May we completely surrender our lives to the perfect ways of Your Son.  As we rise and fall in our frailty, may we rejoice in knowing that Your presence is always with us and You will not leave us before Your perfecting work is done.  We ask all these things in the name of our Sure Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Convicted Down to the Smallest Transgression

Isaiah 6:5
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
When we go into the presence of God, anything that is not pleasing to Him will come to mind.  We cannot get by with a general sense of sinfulness.  The Holy Spirit will not rest until we have been convicted of all of our sin, down to smallest transgression.
When Isaiah came upon the vision of the Lord and saw His holiness, Isaiah immediately proclaimed that he was a man of unclean lips.  Isaiah knew that he would not be able to serve the Lord without cleansing himself from the sin that he had been shown.
God will work the same way with each of us.  Through His Holy Spirit, He will convict us of every single point of iniquity in our lives.  Then He will lead us to deeper revelation of the things in our lives that are simply displeasing to Him.  The process will continue until we are properly prepared to serve Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the restlessness that the Holy Spirit brings upon us when we are walking in darkness.  We thank You for the absolute focus that You put on our sins, making it impossible for us to take on a vague sense of the sinfulness in our lives.  We pray the Holy Spirit will bring our every iniquity into the light so that we may repent and move forward in obedience to Your calling on our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Perfecter of Our Faith, Jesus Christ.

Our Precious Freedom

John 8:32
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
For millions of Americans spread out over our nation, this 4th of July weekend will be celebrated as it has been for hundreds of years.  John Adams was the first to suggest that as a nation we should celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  A note written to his beloved wife on July 3, 1776, expressed his exuberance, “Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps never was nor will be decided among men.”  Later that day, he wrote, “It ought to be solemnized with pomp, and parade, with shows, games, sports, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.”
But Adams was wise enough to know that this declaration of independence would not be without cost. He added, “You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states”
So on this Independence Day Holiday, let us follow Adam’s lead.  Let us celebrate our freedom, but let us not forget our freedom is a precious thing, bought with the sweat, toil and blood of countless Americans who initially fought to obtain it.  Let us remember those who have fought to secure our freedom in the centuries since that declaration day in 1776.  And certainly, let us remember those that continue to fight for our freedom around the world today.
But, more importantly, as we celebrate our freedom as Americans let us be moved to consider a greater freedom – our freedom in Jesus Christ. “If you abide in my word,” our Lord declares, “you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32  This is true freedom.
This true freedom is ours if we submit ourselves to living our lives in accordance with God’s ways. Jesus said that the only way to follow Him was to take up our cross daily and follow Him.  Taking up the cross of Christ means putting aside our earthly agendas and asking the Holy Spirit to help us follow where Jesus is leading. Some days that may mean that we don’t get to do exactly what we had planned. God is not looking to take our freedom away; He is asking us to allow Him to lead us on right paths so that our lives can fulfill His purposes.
Prayer
Dear Lord, forgive us for allowing ourselves to live independently from You.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to choose this day to submit our lives to You.  May we be lead in the right paths and helped to live a life that is pleasing to You.  Fill us with Your Spirit so that we might be truly and completely free!  We ask all these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

It Is Not Good Enough To Be Good

1 Corinthians 11:1
Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he exhorted them to pattern their lives after Jesus Christ.  Paul understood that obedience to a creed simply takes us to a proper and higher level of lifestyle.  Accepting Jesus Christ as Our Savior and patterning our lives after Him will move us toward a level of perfection, holiness and purity that only He could attain and we can begin to approach through Him.
In truth, it is not good enough to be good.  It is not good enough to do great works.  The only thing that we can do that is of any eternal value is to submit our lives to Jesus Christ as Our Savior, to die of self and to take on the spirit of the One who dwells within us.  Anything less than full submission to Our Lord and Master and anything less than becoming imitators of Jesus Christ as His disciples leaves us short of being true Christians.
What is the goal then?  The goal is to imitate Jesus Christ in our daily lives.  What is the challenge?  The challenge is that we are incapable of achieving our goal without the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives.  What is the answer then?  The answer is to surrender all that we are and all that we have and all that we will ever be and all that we will ever have to Our Lord and Savior.  Then we must turn to the Holy Spirit daily to guide us and strengthen us as the natural man within us refuses to surrender.  Finally, we should rejoice and praise God for He has provided the unchanging, unfailing way, the truth and the life that will allow us to fulfill our stated goal.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing the Word to become flesh so that we could see the standard to which we are all called.  May we stand before You one day in the image of Your Son, washed clean by His blood and perfected by His presence within us.  Father God, we pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to become true disciples of Jesus as we spend our time on earth preparing for the glorious day of coming into Your presence.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High God. 

The Relentless Work of the Holy Spirit

Matthew 5:26
Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
In Matthew’s gospel, we are taught that when we have a debt that needs to be paid that we should try to reconcile with the one to whom we owe the debt.  We will always end up suffering the consequences of the unresolved debt if we do not try to come to terms with our accuser.  We should try to come to terms with the accuser prior to going before the judge.  This passage is generally regarded as a teaching about how to handle conflict concerning civil matters.
The same perspective can very easily be applied to sin in our lives.  It was necessary for Jesus to redeem us from our sin debt for there is not a space in heaven where the slightest sin is allowed.  While our entire sin debt has been paid by Our Savior, it remains our responsibility to come to terms with and repent of all the sin in our lives.  We must confess and ask forgiveness for every act for which we deserve to be accused and judged before the Throne of God.
As new Christians, we likely found it relatively easy to identify and turn away from the obvious and grievous sin in our lives.  It is probable, however, that as we matured in Christ that the Holy Spirit began revealing to us undetected areas in our lives that held the last parcels of sin debt.  These may seem to be the smallest of sins, but they are certainly great enough to separate us from Almighty God.  Thus, the Holy Spirit is relentless in bringing to light sins that may have been lingering below the surface in the form of such things as anger, jealousy, gossip, greed, etc.

Be certain that this painful revealing process will continue with us until we breath our last breath.  Thank God that He has provided His Holy Spirit to bring us to complete repentance for the sin debt that Our Savior has paid in full for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to spare us from our sin debt.  We thank You for Your mercy as You see us struggle against sin in our lives.  We thank You for Your grace as You provide Your Holy Spirit to aid us in departing from our errant ways.  May Your countenance shine upon as we turn away from our old lives and learn to live according to Your kingdom principles here on earth.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.