Category: Uncategorized

Standing on the Rock

John 6:67
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
After teaching a particularly difficult lesson, a number of Jesus’ early disciples turned away from following Him.  This was a crisis time in the early church.  At that point Jesus inquired of His apostles, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”  If the apostles had chosen to walk away from Jesus because His teaching was too hard, where would the church be today?
We are in a crisis time in our churches today.  Pastors are being challenged to answer Jesus’ question regularly.  Unfortunately, too many of them are quick to create new standards when their beliefs are different from the clear directives of God’s Holy Word.  The arguments presented by the pastors who are turning away from the teachings of Jesus are so eloquent and enticing.  They provide a pathway that seems easier and more attuned to our fleshly desires or, at the very least, is more compliant with what we are willing to tolerate. 
We must decide how we will answer Jesus’ question.  Are we going to walk away from His Holy Word and seek out and accept our own new version of Scripture? Are we going to choose not to follow God’s Holy Word as it is written?  In effect, are we going to walk away from Jesus because His lessons are too hard for us to follow?

Let us stand with the apostles.  Let us stand on the Rock.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your inerrant Word for us to follow.  We pray that You enlighten us.  We ask that You open our minds so that we may understand the exact standard to which You are calling us.  We beseech You that You may perfect Your strength in our weakness so that we may be steadfast in following the way, the truth and the life that is Your Son, Jesus.  We ask all these things in the name of the Rock upon whom we stand, Jesus Christ.

In All These Things

Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
You were just told that your job has been eliminated.  Or maybe the school called to let you know your child had been suspended for selling drugs.  Or perhaps you are finding yourself ostracized by your neighbors because of your pro-life beliefs.  How are you responding to your circumstances?  Are you depressed?  Are you in despair?  Are you fearful?

Jesus teaches us that we should expect these types of trials in our lives.  To think that we will not have challenges or trials because we are children of God is in direct opposition to what Jesus teaches us.  So expect tribulation, but take courage for in all theses things we are more than conquerors through Our Savior.
Do not miss the importance of Jesus teaching “in all these things” we will be more than conquerors.  Because Jesus Christ has paid the price in full for each of us, we can and will rise up and find joy in the midst of all of our troubles.  The undaunted presence of Jesus Christ makes the world’s challenges impotent.  No thing nor no power can put a wedge between us and the love of God that provides our resilience. Not only will we overcome, but our faith, our trust in God and our joy will increase through the experience.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for liberating us from our present sufferings by providing the hope that comes from the freedom and glory that has been set aside for us through Your Son, Jesus.  We exalt His precious name for making us conquerors over evil and our own flesh.  We pray for the courage and the strength to face and defeat every trial that the enemy throws our way.  We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because it was first won on the Cross.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ. 

Answers to Things That Are Hidden From Us

Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I’ll answer you, and will tell you about great and hidden things that you don’t know.
The Word of God is very specific.  He spoke the words in this passage to Jeremiah, but His promises are relevant for all men.  Wisdom and understanding concerning all matters of life are available to us.  All we have to do is ask Our Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can imagine. 
Did you notice the little detail in the passage that He will give us answers to things that we do not know?  Did you consider this works for things big and small?  Need to know how to make a certain household repair that you find challenging, ask Him.  He promises to to answer us and tell us things we do not know.  Need to know what direction to take your business or your career, ask Him.  He promises to provide answers that have been hidden from us.  He will deliver them at the time that He knows is perfect for us.
Our responsibility in receiving this awesome blessing is being persistent in asking for wisdom.  If we wait to call on Him when everything comes crashing down on us, we may not be able to handle all that God has ready for us.  It is a building process.  The Lord knows that we are not able to digest too much information at one time.  He will feed us slowly as a baby is fed liquids until it is ready to move on to more solid foods.  He will feed us in accordance to His will and plan for our lives.  His “new knowledge” for us will be dispensed at the perfect time. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing the Holy Spirit to teach us all things, including secret things and inaccessible things.  We humbly ask You to provide us the wisdom that we need to get through each day.  We ask that each day You will build our understanding of who You are and what Your plan is for our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that all things are possible through Your Son, Jesus.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who determines our steps, Jesus Christ.

Satisfied by the Joyful Countenance That is Jesus Christ

Psalm 90:14
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
There is nothing on this earth that satisfies like the love of Our Heavenly Father.  He created a void in our hearts that can only be filled by the presence of Jesus in our lives.  When we allow Jesus to be our sustenance, there is nothing that the world can offer that measures up.

Living under the fountain of life that is Jesus Christ is to have a future filled with joy.  It is to have sufficient balance against all of our griefs and sorrows.  It is the enlightenment that steers us away from wasting our precious time pursuing the things of this earth.  It is the light that produces good works in us.  It is what prepares us for our inheritance in the kingdom of Our Lord.
Unfortunately, too often we chase every type of earthly pleasure in efforts to fill the void in our hearts.  We choose to live in darkness instead of in the light of the One who loves us perfectly.  May our eyes be opened so that we see what Our Savior has set aside for us.  May our hearts be prepared to receive all that Jesus holds for us.  The fullness of our joy will never be reached until we turn to Our Savior for completion.  He, and He alone, is the one who satisfies every desire of our hearts.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your unfailing love.  We rejoice in the joy in our hearts that You have provided by allowing us to receive Your Son, Jesus.  We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to fill our days with the sweet presence of Our Savior and that the Holy Spirit will provide us with the wisdom to turn away from the offerings of this world.  We ask, Father, that as we receive all that has been set aside of us that the world will be drawn to Your Son by our joyful countenance.  We ask all these things in the name of the Joy of the World, Jesus Christ.

Called and Equipped to Serve

1 Kings 17:16
The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.
Elijah, in accordance with God’s directive, went to the widow in Zarephath and requested that she make him some bread to eat.  She told Elijah that she could not feed him because she only had enough flour and oil to feed her and her son one more meal.  She then told Elijah they would die because their food supply would be exhausted.  Elijah told the woman if she made his meal first that her supply would never be exhausted.  And so it was by the word of the Lord.
When we feel the call of the Lord to fulfill a service or a charity, we should never concern ourselves with what is in our cupboard.  The Lord will always supply what we need to fulfill His work.  And when the work is done, our cupboard will overflow just as the widow’s did.
It is God’s way and it is to His glory to make use of and put honor upon the weak and foolish things of the world.  It makes perfect sense that He would want to use us to do His good work.  We certainly fit the bill of the weak and foolish.  May we stand ready to proclaim His glory through the work that we do for Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for calling us to be of service to Your kingdom.  We rejoice in knowing that You will equip us to do whatever You call us to do.  We exalt You as You bless us, knowing we will be a blessing to others.  We pray that we will never question our ability or our resources as You raise us up as instruments of Your good work.  We pray that all that we do will be praise and glory to You, to Your Son Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who calls us to Himself, Jesus Christ.

Living in the Secret Place of the Most High God

Psalm 91:1
He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
In this world, to live in someone’s shadow is generally thought to be an undesirable place.  It is regarded as a place where you cannot live up to the standards of the one who preceded you.  In the kingdom of God, quite the opposite is true.  Living in the shadow of Almighty God frees us to be more than we could believe to be possible.

Loving faith in Almighty God on our part will always be met by faithful love, protection and provision on God’s part.  His covering of us is much greater than we can imagine.  If we are abiding in Him, there is no limit to His shadow that is over us.  He protects us at all times from natural and supernatural enemies.  He makes our homes secure.  He is our refuge in every storm.  Yet He invites us to enjoy so much more.
There is a special nuance in this passage.  The blessings spoken of here in this passage can be greater for those believers who live in close fellowship with God.  Every believer may look toward the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place.  All believers surely run to the mercy seat in time of need and may enjoy occasional moments of communion with the Father, but the fullness of these most high blessings are for those who habitually abide in the shadow of Almighty God. Those who stand in continuous communion with God set themselves up to become possessors of rare and special benefits.  Let us seek the grace to be constant refugees in the fortress of Almighty God so that we cannot miss the fullness of His shadow.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for the shadow of protection and provision that You place over us when we surrender our lives to You.  We bless the name of Jesus who has made it possible for us to come to Your mercy seat.  We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will guide us and strengthen us as we seek to abide under Your shadow.  May our hearts be prepared to seek that secret place of constant communion where we can access the fullness of Your most high blessings.  We ask all these things in the name of the One whose mercies never end, Jesus Christ.

He is Ready to Supply Our Every Need

John 16:31
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
The apostles spent three years with Jesus.  Yet when He was ready to leave them, He had to take a lengthy amount of time explaining to them who He was.  When He completed His explanation, He posed a question to them, “Do you now believe?”
Are we not just like the apostles?  Even though we have spent years in prayer, years in the reading of  the Word, years in worship and years in serving God, we manage to lose our sense of who Almighty God really is and the certainty of all the promises that He has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Sadly, as if Jesus Christ left the earth and left us to our own wiles, we turn toward the world for answers.  We somehow find ourselves overlooking that our all-sufficient Lord provided us with a Wonderful Counselor who stands ready to supply our every need.
Let us be reminded that Jesus promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us and would comfort and guide us.  To believe otherwise is to have a complete lack of faith.  To believe otherwise is to deny what Jesus said He came to earth to do.  “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Do you now believe?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the comfort and guidance that You provide through Your Holy Spirit.  We bless the name of Jesus who came to earth so that we may have peace and we may overcome the tribulations of the world.  We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will help us to dig deep into our relationship with You.  May we dig so deep that we never again turn to the world for counsel without having gone to You first.  Help us, Lord, to believe for more than we believe is possible through our own efforts.  Teach us how to wait on You for Your good and perfect timing in all things.  We ask these things in the name of the One that is with us until the end of the age, Jesus Christ.

Leaving Our Fears and Our Frustrations Behind

Psalm 56:11
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
It is amazing how often we struggle, wondering how our particular situation is going to get resolved.  How little faith we have in Almighty God through whom all things are possible.  But what may be even more amazing is how we have no faith that Almighty God is interested in the smallest needs in our lives when His Word proclaims that He knows the count of every hair on our heads.
Through the continuous and sometimes onerous trials that we have passed through in life, we should have learned to be silent and patient when our trials are light.  Yet we seem to become frustrated by the small stuff and lose patience.  More importantly we lose confidence in Almighty God who bottles all of our tears and observes them with tender love and concern.
May we all come full circle just as Paul did.  May we be in constant recognition of the fact that the Lord is our helper.  May we move forward fearing no man, for man has no power but what God has given him.  Through our trials, may we all praise God knowing that He is faithful to meet our every need. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithful promises to meet our every need.  We praise You for giving us sufficient grace to get through every trial.  We pray, Lord, that You will grant us the faith to trust in You for everything in our lives.  We ask that Your Holy Spirit teach us to come to You boldly with what seems impossible and also come to You confidently with the smallest things that are troubling us.  May Your grace and power in our lives never be diminished because of our lack of understanding.  We ask all these things in the name of the Son seated at the right hand of power, Jesus Christ.

Becoming Fountainheads of God’s Grace

Ezekiel 34:26
And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing.
Everything on earth, whether man, beast or plant, is under the hand of Almighty God.  Our all-sufficient Lord sends out everything required for sustenance and growth.  And when the timing is right, He sends showers.  When God is ready to spread His grace, be certain that you will not receive drops or droplets.  You will receive showers, not a shower, but plentiful showers.
He will cause the showers to come down in season.  His showers will fall upon us according to His divine will and timing for our lives.  His showers will refresh us, revive us and make us fruitful unto His own purpose for our lives.  And it will all be a part of His abundant grace which provides peace, rest, pardon, righteousness and eternal life for each of us.

And through His blessings on each of us in the Body of Christ, the world will receive showers of grace.  But first, we must prepare ourselves to be worthy vessels and we must be alert to the onset of our seasons of grace.  When our seasons arrive, we must be obedient to His calling on our lives.  If we have made ourselves ready, we will become fountainheads for the showers that He has prepared for all men.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly come before You and thank You for Your abundant nature.  We seek the wisdom to learn to wait on Your provision.  We pray for the Holy Spirit to sharpen our awareness of the showers of grace that You pour upon us.  We ask, Father, that You help us to prepare our ground so that we will bear much fruit when the showers arrive.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us in becoming eager conduits of Your grace.  We ask all these things in the name of Our All-Sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

His Servanthood Was Perfectly Complete

Matthew 20:28
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jesus Christ, The Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords came to earth as the Son of Man.  He gave up all of His royal rights to become a servant of every man.  His servanthood was so complete that He gave up His own life and He separated Himself from the Father in order to take on all of our sins so that we might have life with the Father.
Once we claim our eternal inheritance as children of God, we accept that which we do not deserve and could not possibly earn except through the grace and mercy of Our Savior.  When we recognize that Jesus Christ served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness and our sin, we should exhaust ourselves serving all men for His sake.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, should we not follow the model of Our Master?  We should be in constant communion with the Father, just as Jesus was, so that we can determine the will and plan that Our Heavenly Father has for our lives.  We should then be servants to all men in accordance to the will and plan that the Father reveals to us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to be bond servants in Your kingdom.  We praise the name of Jesus who came as Son of Man to show us the model for living in accordance with Your will.  We come before You to proclaim how unworthy we are of all that You have set aside for us to do in service to Your kingdom.  We bless the name of Jesus who has made us worthy servants through the shedding of His blood.  We pray, Father, that You fill us with the power of Your Holy Spirit so that we may pour ourselves out to all men.  May the hearts of those around us be prepared to receive what we have to offer in the name of Our Savior.  We pray all these things in the name of Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.