Month: June 2017

The Power and Promises of the Inerrant Word of God

Deuteronomy 4:2
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.
Throughout the ages, God’s Word has always been challenged to some degree.  But in today’s world, God’s Word is being challenged in totality.  It was gradual at first, but now God’s detractors are bold and aggressive.  Their messages are widespread and unforgiving.  If you do not fall in line with the untruths that they sell, you are a bigot and a danger to society.
We are being told over and over again that the world’s values are changing and that we all need to change with it.  In other words, God’s Word is not meant to be everlasting.  It was only good for a different time and place.
When given the opportunity to share the Good News, we may find ourselves trying to massage the message so that it is more palatable to the listener.  How dare we presume that our words are more pleasing to the lost than the Word of God?  When we are sharing God’s Word with the others, we should speak the truth as it is written.  We are doing the lost a great disservice if we give them anything other than the full truth.  Our words are powerless when they are not grounded in the Word of God.  Yet when we speak under the authority of the Word of God, our words hold the same truths and promises as the Word of God.  Our words offer hope and assurance for those who are in need.

Let us seek a higher level of understanding of what is written in the Bible.  Let us apply the teachings of the Holy Scripture to our lives.  Let us move in the kingdom authority promised to us in God’s Holy Word. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your inerrant Word so that we may have knowledge of who You are, so that we may know how much You love us, so that we may know that You have created us in Your image and that we may know that You have a perfect plan for our lives here on earth and in Your eternal kingdom.  We exalt You for all the promises that You extend to us in Your Holy Word.  Lord, we pray that You open our minds to receive the truths in Your Word.  We pray that You equip us to share the perfect truth in Your Word with those that You have placed in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ.

Exhausting Every Measure to Serve Others

Philemon 1:21
Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
Paul wrote to Philemon asking him to forgive his slave, Onesimus, who had run away.  Paul also asked Philemon to accept Onesimus as a brother in Christ.  The law gave Philemon the right to deal with his runaway slave harshly.  Paul was asking Philemon to go beyond the law and respond with an act of brotherly love.
God’s call on each of our lives is unique.  While He gives all of us His Holy Word and the Ten Commandments to follow, He sets aside specific directives for each of us to follow.  He places these callings on our heart.  He wants to see our obedience to Him.  It is for His glory.  It is for the gain of His kingdom here on earth and in heaven.  When we follow God’s calling, it is certain that our obedience will provide favor in our lives beyond anything that we see or imagine.
But we should strive to go beyond the things that we are called to.  We should open our hearts and our minds to find ways to give joy to one another.  We should look around to see who among us is hurting, struggling or simply in need of a kind gesture.  Let us find ways to comfort one another and bring joy to one another.  We should exhaust every measure to bring hope to others.  But if in no other way, we should abound in prayer for everyone. 
If obedience to the law brings us unimagined favor, what will we receive for going beyond the law?  Just as Paul was confident in Philemon, Jesus is confident that His disciples will do even more than He asks.  He is waiting to richly reward those that love and serve the world.

Let us take up the Cross of Jesus Christ, who gave His all for all of mankind.  Let us model the servant King.  Let us show the world the love of the One who dwells within us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for calling us to serve You.  We know that You will provide Your favor and protection when we follow your Holy Word and your Commandments and the callings that You place on our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You for all eternity.  Gracious Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit reveal to us the areas where You are calling us in obedience to serve you.  We ask for an overflowing of the love of Our Savior in our lives so that we will be founts of comfort, joy and hope to those that are in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Worthy Lamb, Jesus Christ.

His Unbreakable Commitment to Deliver Us

Jeremiah 1:8
“Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you”, declares the LORD.
The Lord spoke to Jeremiah to give him confidence.  He assured Jeremiah that he would not be asked to do anything for which the Lord had not equipped him.  The Lord also confirmed with Jeremiah that He would be protected from anything or anyone that tried to come against him.  This was all necessary to boost up Jeremiah.  Jeremiah was being asked to deliver messages that were not pleasant to the ears of his audience.  Jeremiah, one of God’s greatest prophets, needed the divine inspiration of God to be able to carry out His assignment.
Our heavenly Father knows that often we fear what others will think about us.  God knows that we are weak and have a sense of inadequacy about carrying out the work that He calls us to do.  In His Word, He gives us the story of Jeremiah to strengthen and encourage us.  He wants us in a place where we fear no man.  
Surely, getting to this place where we fear no man is one of the most difficult lessons that we as believers ever learn.  It requires that we learn to trust completely in the Lord in all matters concerning our lives.  Even though the Lord has promised His perfect provision and protection in our lives, we still struggle to live in the fullness of what He has declared.  Sadly, it is a lesson that is probably not fully internalized even up to our death beds.  How much more joy would we have in life if we just simply put our complete trust in Him?

Let us boldly follow our calling to be messengers of the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus Christ.  Let us confidently shed all fear of those who might speak against us or in any way persecute us.  Let us rejoice in knowing that the Lord will be faithful in delivering us through all circumstances.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the protection and provision that You promise us.  We rejoice in Your unbreakable commitment to Your Word.  We praise You for allowing us to live in Your grace.  We pray, Lord, that You give us the courage to see past our circumstances and the wisdom to know that Your hand will be sufficient for all that we need.  We ask, Father, that Your Holy Spirit build us up and strengthen us so that we fear no man.  May we carry out the work that You give to us with the boldness and confidence of Your prophets.  We ask all these things in the name of the Strength of Our Lives, Jesus Christ.

The Winning Formula

Romans 12:12
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Rejoice.  Endure.  Pray.  Now that is a winning combination.  Each of these disciplines undergirds the other.  The cumulative power gained by exercising these disciplines is even more valuable to followers of Jesus Christ when considering when they will be applied – during the times of trial and tribulation.
So how do these things work together.  First of all, Jesus taught that in the world we will have tribulation.  This is a given.  There is no getting around it and it is becoming obvious in these days that tribulation for Christians is being ramped up in the form of persecution unlike anything that we have ever seen in our lifetime.  More significantly, Satan is ramping up his attacks on us because he knows his time is getting shorter.  

But knowing that our trials and tribulations are certain helps us to prepare for victory.  We can rejoice as we have the hope given to us by the Son of God who has overcome the world.  This is so certain that Jesus commands us to be of good cheer.  And finally, because of the weakness of our flesh, the Lord God Almighty has provided access to His throne.  When we are in the middle of the battle, losing strength and clearly not of good cheer, Our Heavenly Father invites us into His presence to receive an overflowing of His grace which will strengthen us, encourage us and lift us up into the joyful expectancy that belongs to us as children of the living God.
Let us rejoice in our hope, the ever faithful Jesus Christ.  Let us persevere in our trials.  Let us seek from God the fresh supplies of grace that we need to indeed be of good cheer at all times and under all circumstances.  Let us claim the victory that is ours.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the constant flow of Your grace into our lives.  Teach us, Father, to come to You throughout the day, not just at certain assigned times.  Show us how to come into Your presence without ceasing.  May we learn to humble ourselves before You endlessly as we come to You in prayer, bringing You the love, the honor and the praise that You alone deserve.  We pray that we will endure all things as we rely on the Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.  We rest on His promises.  We ask all these things in the precious, holy and mighty name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Beacons of Light

Colossians 1:13
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Sin is our nature.  It never leaves our flesh.  It keeps us in darkness from which there is no escape.  Without Jesus Christ in our lives, we are easy prey for Satan who stands ready to exploit the power of sin in our lives at a moment’s notice.
But our merciful Heavenly Father made it part of His plan to give us the light and the power that we need to escape the darkness.  He provided a way for us to be bond servants to His Son and not to be slaves to Satan.  Through our relationship with His Crucified Son, we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God.  We receive true spiritual light as Christ is revealed to us, causing the prince of darkness to flee from us and the scales of darkness and blindness to fall from our eyes.
Our only refuge from sin is Jesus Christ.  By faith in Our Savior we are redeemed at the expense of His shed blood.  We are forgiven of our sins so that we may become objects of the Father’s love and delight, just as His Son is.

Let us rejoice in knowing that we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.  Let us seek to become beacons of His light for the world around us.  Let us humbly accept our roles as vessels of His light so that He may draw others from the darkness into His eternal light.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a way for us to be freed from our sinful natures.  We thank You, Jesus, for giving us victory over sin through Your shed blood and death on the Cross.  We thank You, Holy Spirit, for standing with us and strengthening us to overcome the sin in our lives.  We pray that we will come to the humble place where we recognize that we are incapable of victory over sin without the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that one day we will stand in the light for all eternity and darkness will never again touch us.  We pray that we may become beacons of light for the world around us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Great Light, Jesus Christ.

Unqualified to Judge

Matthew 7:2
For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
One of the biggest flaws in humanity is the desire to proclaim judgment on one another.  It is part of our human nature.  When we combine the desire to proclaim judgment on others with the fact that we are all so tragically flawed by sin, the opportunity for judging others becomes readily and abundantly available.  This has led us as a society to be cruelly judgmental of all the people that we find in our lives.
Jesus knew that we would struggle in this area.  Thus He provided us with a stern warning about judging others.  He wanted us to recognize that we are not qualified to judge, only He is.  Even more so, He wanted us to understand that in judging others we put ourselves in a position to pay an enormous price.
In addition to the potential of ruining other people’s lives because of our judgmental nature, we also risk the following for ourselves:
  • If we practice a critical spirit, we are likely to steal our own joy and peace.
  • If we assume God’s authority to judge, we place ourselves under greater scrutiny.
  • If we include malice in our judgement, we pollute our own hearts.
  • If we plant seeds of unforgiveness and condemnation, we become vulnerable to hatred.

Almighty God, through the sacrifice of His Son, chose to see us all as holy and blameless.  He gives us the freedom to choose to see others as He sees them.  He calls us to:
  • Forgive others as we let Christ’s peace rule in our hearts.
  • Comfort others as we manifest the mercy of the Father.
  • Honor others above ourselves as we imitate the humility of Our Savior.
  • Encourage others as we share in the treasures of Jesus Christ.
  • Love others as we let the perfect love of God flow through us.

Let us love God above all things, relying on Him as the Judge over all.  Let us love our neighbors as ourselves, choosing to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and not in the spirit of the world.
   
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that our sins have been forgiven and washed away by the sacrificial blood of Your Son.  We praise You for the mercy that You have extended to us through Your Son.  We pray that You will shield us from the desire to judge others when You have kept judgment for Yourself.  May we not seek to find sin in the lives of others, but only seek to help others find the forgiveness that is in the name of Jesus.  May we all live our lives as vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask all these things in the name of the Judge of the Living and the Dead, Jesus Christ.

Taking Up the Cross

Mark 14:34
And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”
Through Jesus, we receive the exchanged life of joy for the old life of sin and its miserable consequences.  Jesus paid a great price for our redemption.  He suffered physically, mentally and emotionally to go to the Cross for us.  He knew in advance the bodily torments, the agonizing death and the inconceivable burden of the weight of the sins of all men that He would suffer.  To secure our redemption, He chose the only path that fulfilled God’s plan for our salvation.
As Jesus approached His time of great suffering, He was very sorrowful.  He was feeling the full agony of knowing that He would be taking on the burden of all sin.  His suffering was so great that He took Peter, James and John with Him to stand by Him in prayer as He prayed for strength in His most awful time of distress.  Three times He left the apostles to pray.  Each time He asked them to remain and watch.  Each time He found them asleep when He returned.  The apostles in their weakness were not able to provide Jesus with the support that He requested as He prepared to take on His Cross.  But even though the apostles left Jesus to take on the Cross alone, Jesus was given the strength that He needed by the Holy Spirit.
Ultimately, we must choose to take up the Cross of Jesus Christ.  We must choose the way of Christ or the way of sin.  This is an impossible decision for us to make on our own.  Just like the apostles, our flesh is too weak.  But like Jesus, we have the power and the strength that we need to overcome sin because the Holy Spirit stands by us and prepares our hearts to take our victory over sin.

Let us strive to live the joyous life of holiness.  Let us be watchful and persistent in fending off the oppressive life of sin.  Let us seek the Holy Spirit to stand by us and strengthen us as we walk on our paths of sanctification.   
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to die for our sins.  We praise the name of Jesus who chose to take all the sorrow and grief that He endured on our behalf.  We thank You for the Holy Spirit who guided us in choosing to accept Jesus as Our Savior, so that we might overcome the sin in our lives that separates us from You.  We pray for wisdom to always seek the strength and the counsel available to us through the Holy Spirit that stands on watch against sin with us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Blessing the People in Our Lives

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once we received our salvation, we were called out of the darkness offered by the world.  We were placed into the living light of Jesus Christ.  We were called to become priests to spread His light to the world around us.  We were called to intercede on the behalf of others so that they may be taken out of the darkness into the light.
In Numbers, we read that the Lord instructed Moses to have the priests, Aaron and his sons, to bless the people in the following way:  “May the Lord bless you and protect you.  May the Lord smile upon you.  May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.”
These are the blessings that we should desire for those around us when we have accepted our calling into the royal priesthood.  As we abide in Jesus, these are the blessings that we should take before the Lord without stopping in intercession for those around us that are in need.  We should prayerfully seek nothing but the best of what God has to offer for all of the people in our lives.

Let us pick up our priestly mantle.  Let us stand before the throne of God proclaiming the excellencies of Our Savior.  Let us call on His Holy Spirit to intercede for all of those who God has placed in our lives.  Let us become light to a world that is living in darkness.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for taking us out of the darkness of the world and making us part of Your royal priesthood.  We praise the name of Jesus who guides us in our priestly duties.  May we learn to bless the people in our lives through our prayers and through our living testimony.  We ask all these things in the name of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.

We Have Only Seen a Portion of His Power

Job 26:14
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him!  But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
It is completely breathtaking to realize that we have only seen a mere portion of Almighty God’s power.  It is quite inspiring to know that in Heaven we will be on an endless journey of enjoying and discovering all of God’s divine capacity.
Just think that all that has been revealed to us about Our Heavenly Father through the experiences of the ages and through the writings in His Holy Word is only a foretelling of His omnipotence.  What we see of Him on earth and what we read of Him in the scriptures are illustrative of His awesome nature, but most of what He does each and every day is invisible to us.  To name all the wondrous powers of Almighty God would be as fruitless as trying to count the stars.  
God’s never ending works are completely immeasurable.  They extend well beyond our ability to conceive of His might.  We can be certain that what we see or know of Him is nothing in comparison of what we do not know about Him.  Yet, we can be even more certain that all of His mighty wonders were eclipsed when He gave us His Son as the way, the truth and the life.  With that gracious act of mercy and that unfathomable expression of His perfect love, He opened the gateways of heaven for all of His children to become heirs to His kingdom for all of eternity.
Let us press on through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we may grow in our knowledge of the Lord and all His ways.  Even though we will not be able to completely know Him on this earth, let us become willing vessels of His power and living testimonies of His love so that others will seek to know Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for drawing us to Yourself through the exhibition of Your divine power throughout the ages.  We exalt the name of Jesus as the most wondrous expression of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask that the Holy Spirit instruct us in knowing about You and lead us into a personal relationship with You through Your Son, Jesus.  We pray that we will become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  May the world know You through our obedience in following Your calling on our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the dunamis power of God, Jesus Christ.

Our God is Not a Laissez-faire Ruler

Habakkuk 1:3
Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.  
In this passage, Habakkuk is crying out to God in frustration because of the things he is seeing in the society of his day.  Doesn’t this passage sound as if it could have been written today?  Who isn’t totally frustrated and deeply concerned by what we see and read in the news every single day?
Perhaps this frustration is carrying over into our own personal lives.  Who among us hasn’t cried out to God for relief from the struggles of work, relationships, addictions, afflictions or even sin itself?  How often do we begin to lose hope when we do not see immediate relief from our circumstances?
God has a response for us just as he had for Habakkuk when He said, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded.  For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.  Habakkuk 1:5
In His Holy Word, God is commanding us to look around us to see where He is working.  He is not an idle, laissez-faire ruler.  He wants us to have faith in who He says He is.  He is actively involved in every single event in the world and in our lives. He is controlling all things for the ultimate perfect good of His children.
Let us look for God working in our lives.  Let us look for the wondrous works of Almighty God in each and every day.  Let us rejoice in His faithfulness and mercy in our lives.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for all that You do to protect us and provide for us.  We thank You for those things that You do that we cannot see.  We know that these unseen wonders are never ending for we know that You are faithful to Your promises.  We ask that You teach us how to live in complete faith that Your hand is on this world and on our lives.  We pray that Your Holy Spirit strengthen us when our circumstances lead us to feel that Your hand is not upon us.  May we exalt Your name for all that You do.  We ask all these things in the name Our Most Blessed Wonder, Jesus Christ.