Author: Charlie Brignac

I am forever a student of the Word and a disciple of Jesus Christ, finding life applications in Scripture. I write about Christian themes, including bringing others to Christ, the matchless name of Jesus and various spiritual concepts like a penitent heart and overcoming darkness. I focus on Christian teachings, personal faith and reliance on the Holy Spirit. I invite you to read through my daily writings. Think them out for yourself through your study of God's Holy Word. Pray on the meaning of the message. Then let the message come alive in your life.

Perfect Love and Forgiveness

Matthew 5:22
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Jesus was very clear on His position about forgiving others.  There is no leeway given for those who are unwilling to forgive.

Jesus Christ is the essence of perfect love and forgiveness.  His perfect standard is the same standard that we are all called to meet.  When we fall short of this standard in our daily lives, we are commanded to right ourselves before we come to Him with our offerings and our prayers.  

The process of recognizing, reconciling and asking forgiveness for our shortcomings in sharing the perfect love and forgiveness of Jesus with the world around us is essential to our growth as disciples of Jesus.  It also prepares us to receive the fullness of His love and forgiveness in our own lives and makes us worthy to bring our prayers and offerings to the Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You have shown us.  We bless the name of Jesus who is the essence of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We pray, Father, that we may become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.

Living the Life of a Disciple of Jesus

Matthew 5:40
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

The instruction is simple enough.  It just does not make sense to us.  It is not natural for us to bear an injury for the sake of peace.  In the flesh, it is difficult for us to meet this standard.  

As we become disciples of Jesus Christ, we learn to commit our concerns to the Lord.  We learn to avoid the disputes that our flesh would demand.  We come to recognize through the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit that our flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Only our spirit will find its resting place with the Father.  And it will be our spirit that will find supernatural peace and comfort on this earth when we follow the principles that Our Lord teaches.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ cannot be carried out in the flesh.  God does not start with our natural ability and build on it.  He only asks that we rely on His grace and submit to the presence and the supernatural work of the One that dwells within us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the all-sufficient grace that You
provide that allows us to live as disciples of Your Son, Jesus.  We humbly acknowledge, Father, that You do not see us as who we are today or who we have been.  We rejoice in knowing that You see us as who we are in Christ.  We pray, Lord Jesus, that You will walk by our side and lead us to the way of peace.  We ask that You show us how to draw the world to You through our living testimony as Your disciples.   


The Prayers of the Righteous

Mark 11:25
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.


There is but one Cross – one atonement for our sins.  Our time on earth is to be spent reconciling ourselves to the Cross.  Nothing we do has value in the eyes of the Lord unless it has been put in proper order in our lives.  The Heavenly Father must be the first consideration of every conscious moments of our lives.  If there is anything or any person the comes before the Father, He will not hear our prayers.

When we come before the Father in prayer with anger and uncharitable feelings for another, He cannot grant us spiritual power.  We have supplanted His place as The First by coming to Him with our transgressions mixed in with our prayer offering.  The transgressions must be reconciled or we have no hope of receiving a favorable answer from God.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to hear our prayers when we are righteous.  We praise the name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who made it possible for us to stand before You as righteous men and women.  We rejoice in knowing that our sins are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Your Son.  We pray for the wisdom and strength to forgive others as You have forgiven us.  May we humble ourselves and kneel at the Cross daily so that we may receive the grace that we need to remain righteous. 

On the Way to Jerusalem

Luke 18:31
And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

Jesus was perfectly attuned to the work that He was called to do.  He spent His entire time on earth completely focused on doing the will of His Father.  He did not care if He preached to one or to ten thousand.  He was not seeking recognition for the good work that He was doing in the sense that we would seek recognition for ourselves.  

Jesus was only concerned with pleasing the Father.  Nothing could discourage Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem to meet His fate at Calvary.  No amount of suffering could deter Him.  No distraction could lead Him to hurry to the next task.  The only task that Jesus was concerned with was the one that the Father put before Him.  

It is important that we tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can learn to align our personal plans with the plans that God has for our lives.   We must find our way to our Jerusalem.  We must let nothing take us off our path.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our eternal resting place in the New Jerusalem.  We praise Our Savior, Jesus, for clearing our path to get there.  We ask for the Holy Spirit to direct us to our path and prepare us for the journey.  We pray that we may be strengthened so that we may be steadfast in doing only the things that are pleasing to You, Father.  May all the glory be Yours.

My Lord, My Master and My King

John 13:13
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

In every other religion in the world, the final goal is to have done enough to satisfy a god who provides eternal rewards for those who fulfill the demands.  The followers of these gods live under a task master who has nothing to offer to those who bow before him.

For followers of Jesus Christ, the servitude to the Master is totally different.  The Master has taken care of everything that is necessary for the servant to be worthy of eternal reward with Almighty God.  The Master promises to perfect His strength in the weaknesses of every follower so that they are healed of their wounds, redeemed from their transgressions and made holy and worthy to stand before The Father for all eternity.

Sitting under this Teacher and Lord, Jesus Christ, means that we have someone who knows us better than ourselves, who is closer to us than our friends and family, who understands the deepest desires of our hearts and fulfills them.  Through this Master, the Son of God, we have the security that our eternal destination is settled.  There is no need to question whether we have done enough.  In the words of Jesus himself, “It is finished.”

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that everything that needed to done for us to meet You in heaven for all eternity was finished on the Cross.  We bless the name of Jesus, Our Master and Our King, who completed it all on our behalf.  We pray, Lord, that we may sit humbly at the feet of Our Master and surrender to the way, the truth and the life that is in Him.  May we become vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness.  May we become instruments of His good work.

For the Glory of Almighty God

Isaiah 49:5
And now the LORD speaks–the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

We learn three important things from the prophet Isaiah that pertains to each of us:  
1) God created us.
2) He called us to serve Him.
3) He will give us all we need to fulfill our calling.

The entire human race was created to serve and glorify God forever.  We cannot fulfill our responsibility to glorify God if we live in darkness.  We must live in The Light.

Christ dwelling in us and reigning in us is our hope for living a life that glorifies Almighty God.  Through the presence of Jesus Christ our calling to serve God will be revealed to us.  Through the presence of Jesus, all the mysteries of heaven will be revealed to us.  We will not be shortchanged in any manner when it comes to us being able to glorify God.

As we surrender to the direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will fulfill everything that the Lord has prepared for us.  We will receive all of God’s loving kindness, mercy and grace.  We will be given all the tolerance, patience, discernment, wisdom and strength that we need to fulfill God’s creative purposes for our lives.  Through it all, we will glorify Our Heavenly Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You have bestowed upon us through Your Son, Jesus.  We rejoice in knowing that You have a wonderful plan for our lives that will bring glory to You forever.  We pray, Lord, that You bring us to a place of repentance so that we may turn away from all that displeases You and turn toward every good thing that You have set aside for us.  May it all be for your eternal glory.

Reflecting His Grace and Holiness

Matthew 5:48
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

We are most comfortable in life when we are around people we like.  We also feel comfortable when we are asked to do things that we know that we are capable of doing successfully.  In these times of ease, our personality and our capabilities shine and our performance appears to be nearly perfect.  Unfortunately, this type of behavior, while pleasing to some, does not usually reflect the presence of the One who dwells within us and does not produce enough fruit to draw the world around us to Our Savior.  It truly affects little.
  
On the other hand, when we follow the perfect example of Jesus during times when we are challenged by our situations, we allow the fruits of the Holy Spirit to flow through us.  The world around us sees the modeling of Our Savior and is drawn to Him.  It is our duty as Christians to desire to press forward in grace and holiness, so that we may conform ourselves to the example of Jesus Christ under even the most difficult circumstances.  

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to be our perfect model for life.  We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to guide us to follow Jesus’ example.  We rejoice in knowing that our obedience will result in the gifts of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the world around us.  We pray that we may exhibit unusual grace, gentleness, faithfulness, loving kindness, patience, self-control and goodness as we are being taxed by our situations.  May You receive all the praise and glory, Lord.

Please excuse my absence

I will be unable to post May 15 – 19.  Please feel free to visit all my archived posts.  Below is a message from Charles Spurgeon.

Morning and Evening 9/15 AM

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.

Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you more than other men? Other men have not your God to fly to; they have never proved His faithfulness as you have done, and it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but you profess to be of another spirit; you have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things; now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess? Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do? Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God’s high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then take courage, and relying in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, “let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Living a Simple Life

2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Satan’s fingerprints are all over the complexity of issues that we deal with daily in this world.  The tactic is simple.  The more stuff that we have to deal with the less time that we have to focus on Our Savior.

The tough part is that separating the stuff out of our lives is not always a black and white situation.  We are faced with many things that are covered in layers of grey.  Each layer is designed by Satan to confuse us, make us see evil as good and keep us under stress as we deal with all the clutter in our lives.

When our focus is in Jesus Christ, our lives become much simpler.  He that dwells within us is the essence of everything good and the absence of evil.  Simplicity in life is seeing, believing in and adhering to the black and white choices offered by the teachings of Jesus.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing the way, the truth and the life that is Your Son, Jesus.  We praise the name of Jesus for modeling the good and perfect life that we should strive for.  We rejoice in knowing that our choices in life are easy when we abide in Our Savior.  We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will provide the wisdom that we need to discern the proper choices that we need to make in life for ourselves and our families.  May we learn to live in the light and shut the door on the darkness that the world offers.

The Faithfulness of the Work of Jesus Christ

John 17:4
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

There is no joy on earth that can compare to having full union with Jesus Christ.  We will not experience the complete fullness of this union until we meet Our Savior in heaven.  In the meantime, we can experience a joy here on earth through our union with Christ that will exceed any expectation that we could ever imagine. 

As we surrender our lives to Jesus, just as He surrendered His life to The Father, we will experience through Our Savior the union that He has and that He had with The Father when He was on earth.  And just as Jesus was faithful in completing His work on earth, He will also be faithful in completing His work in us.  

Satan and our own flesh will come against us, but The Spirit of the Lord will insure that we overcome the work of the enemy.  We do not need to be concerned about our circumstances, Our Savior will be sufficient.  And it will all be for the glory of The Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You have given us through Your Son to overcome the world.  We bless the name of Jesus for His faithfulness in completing the good work that You gave Him to do.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us and strengthen us so that we may fully surrender to Your will just as Your Son surrendered His all to You.  May it all be for the Your glory, for the glory of The Son and the glory of the Holy Spirit.