Category: Uncategorized

The Management of Our Hearts

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Human rationalization leads us to believe that everyone at some level has a good heart.  God’s Holy Word emphasizes that the opposite is true.  The human heart is corrupt.  Without Jesus Christ, the human heart is in fact deceitful above all things.  Is it no wonder that in today’s news that we see evil called good and good called evil? 

As a society, we have pushed God and His Son out of the picture.  Collectively, we have placed our confidence in ourselves and others.  The result has been in accordance with God’s Word.  We now find ourselves in a culture that is desperately wicked.  We see leaders that are delusional.  We live among a people who mock the name of Jesus and persecute those that follow Him and choose to live by His standards.   

How could all this happen?  Does God not know how incapable we are to manage our own hearts?  Of course He does.  That is why He gave us His Son, Jesus, to be Our Savior.  That is why He gave us His Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts to see the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus, to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus as Our Savior, and to mold our hearts to surrender to Jesus as Our Lord, Our Master and Our King. Through His perfect love and forgiveness, Almighty God allowed us to take the management of our hearts out of our own wretched hands and place it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing the wickedness in our hearts.  We thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that we have a way to overcome our desire to be the rulers over our own hearts.  We praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit to inspire us to turn our hearts over to Jesus. We pray that the lost around us may know the true nature of their hearts as they see the difference that Jesus Christ has made in our hearts.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Refiner and Purifier of our hearts. 

When the Clouds Become the Darkest

Revelation 1:7
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.  Even so. Amen.
This passage calls attention to that great day when all will see the wisdom and happiness of the friends of Christ and the madness and misery of His enemies.  Great sorrow and suffering will be ahead for those who wound and crucify Him by their non-belief.  Those who have not accepted Jesus as the way, the truth and the life will find out that He is the only way to eternity with the Father in heaven. 
Isn’t it ironic that Jesus will arrive in the clouds?  It is quite natural to associate the idea of clouds with storm clouds.  When storm clouds are building we are likely to think, “look out.”  As we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we come to realize when storm clouds begin to build in our lives, we need to think, “look up.”  Just as God used the clouds to guide the Israelites to the promised land, He can use the storm clouds in our lives to turn our focus to Him for guidance.  Through this process, He teaches us dependence on Him for providing the pathway through the storms of our lives.  Paradoxically, without the storm clouds we would never develop the faith that we need to completely surrender to Our Savior.  The perfect pathway through the storms of life lies in a relationship with Jesus Christ.  The only pathway from this life into eternal life is through Jesus Christ.
In today’s world it is not difficult to find storm clouds building on every horizon.  Let us pray that all people of the world will turn to Jesus as the clouds become the darkest.  May each heart be prepared to turn to the Light of the World to secure their eternal destiny.  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the Light of the World, Your Son Jesus, to save us from the darkness that comes to devour us.  We praise You for the faith that You build in us as Jesus carries us and comforts us through our trials.  We pray that we may learn from the trials that we pass through so that we may comfort others who pass the same way.  Through the light of our living testimony, may we draw others through the darkness to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.  We ask all these things in the name of the Judge of the Living and the Dead, Jesus Christ. 

Overcoming the Headwinds of Life

Mark 6:45
Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.
The directive was clear to the disciples.  “Get in the boat.  Go to the other side of the lake.  Wait on Me.”  So off they went, obedient to the directive given them.  They probably assumed this would be a relatively easy trip.  Little did they know that their journey would be difficult.  In fact, their journey was described as painful for the wind was strongly against them.  But in the midst of their struggles, Jesus showed up and the winds ceased.  Once again they were reminded of the power and ever presence of the Lord in their lives.  Once again God received the glory.
This passage reminds us that life is not about achievements, not even achievements in the areas that God is leading us.  We may have the feeling that God is leading us to a particular end.  He is, but not how we are thinking about it.  The goal of getting to a particular end is simply a by product of the process that God is taking us through.  With God, the process is the end.
All the headwinds that we encounter in life are part of the process of preparing us for our eternal place with the Father.  The process is complete when we seek the will of the Father in every circumstance in our lives.  His purpose is that we call on Him and His power in each moment that we live, regardless of the end that we may be working toward.  It is each precious moment and not the end result that is important to God.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for being ever present with us during the chaos of our lives.  We thank You that we can call on You every single moment of our lives to be our strength when the headwinds of life come against us.  We pray that You teach us how to live every moment of our lives aware of the sanctifying process that You are taking us through.  May our relationships with You mature beyond our expectations as we experience the fullness of Jesus Christ in our lives.  May we savor each moment, knowing that it brings glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lord over all, Jesus Christ.

Purity is Unreachable without Jesus Christ

Matthew15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
Have you ever stubbed your toe on a piece of furniture or perhaps leaned up quickly and hit your head on something?  I am sure you have.  We all have.  Did the unexpected jolt of pain result in words of love and praise flowing from your mouth?  For most of us, the answer would be no.  More likely, we may have let out a few words that we were not too proud of.  

Found in the core structure of the flesh is sin.  Thus our response to trials can often be categorized as something less than holy.  To think that we are capable of avoiding the trappings of our flesh on our own would be spiritually naive.  In fact, we would be thinking contrary to the Word of God if we thought we had such control over ourselves.  We are firmly bound to sin without the indwelling of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
We can lead good lives by worldly standards, but we cannot lead Godly lives without the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Purity is too deep down for man to get to naturally.  We need the Holy Spirit to guide us in surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ so that we may live in accordance with His unsullied purity.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Son, Jesus, to be the supreme authority over our hearts.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us in our battle to live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to You.  By Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace, may we repent of everything in our lives that displeases You.  We pray that we may surrender all that we have and all that we are to You.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You for all eternity.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who is Perfect and Holy, Jesus Christ.

The Darkness of Our Natural Way

Revelation3:17
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
In Jesus’ message to the church of Laodicea, He warns of the danger of becoming lukewarm in our relationship with Him and lukewarm in our application of His teachings in our lives.  His message is so relevant today as we allow the work of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Word to be largely diminished as we find ourselves trying to fit into the norms of our deviant society.  

The teachings of Jesus can seem out of all proportion with our natural way of considering things.  In fact, reading His teachings can lead to astonishing discomfort.  Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, it may be challenging for us to rationalize the inerrant teaching in the Word.
The corruption of the world has become so commonplace that it is often overlooked and at times completely approved of as acceptable behavior.  The Word of God magnifies the differences between the ways of Our Risen Lord and the ways of the world.  When the Holy Spirit leads us to see the power and joy in the lifestyle of Jesus Christ, we begin the process of gaining victory over the wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked man we once were.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to show us the way, the truth and the life that is available to us through our salvation and the daily working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We pray that You will shine Your light on the world so that all the darkness is exposed for what it is.  We ask You to show us where we are moving toward the darkness and away from Your perfect light.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will instruct us and strengthen us as we fully surrender to living in the fullness of Jesus Christ, settling for nothing less that the world might offer.  May we be set on fire as disciples of Jesus.  May we boldly proclaim the truth in Your Holy Word.  May we be light to the darkness in the world around us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of all the earth, Jesus Christ.

Standing in the Presence of Almighty God

Matthew 5:20
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
No one can stand before the eternal light and consummate holiness of Almighty God with the slightest taint of sin.  Thus the need for us to accept Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is He, and He alone, that washes us clean of our sin.  It is His shed blood that makes us worthy to stand before the Most Holy, Almighty God of the Universe.  It is the Son of God that secures our eternal destination in heaven. 

As babes in Christ, we joyfully celebrate our eternal gift as heirs to the kingdom of God.  But our joy is quickly challenged when we realize that we must still deal with the sin nature within us.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we become cognizant of how wretched we are in our carnal nature.  We also come to the place we recognize that we are incapable of overcoming our wretchedness on our own.  But we must not let this steal our joy.  In fact, we should experience an even greater joy as the Holy Spirit teaches us just how essential our decision was to accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior.

For no man can make himself pure enough to enter heaven by obeying the laws.  The Pharisees created laws upon laws that were supposedly put in place to prepare them for their way to heaven.  Jesus put to rest the folly in their thinking.  Jesus taught that there was no possibility for anyone to enter heaven without accepting Him as Savior.
Let us not lose our joy as we struggle with our carnal nature.  Let us remain in the joy that we experienced as new babes in Christ.  Let us rejoice in knowing that we will stand before Almighty God with the assurance in Christ that the Father in heaven will only see our holiness. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for making it possible for us to stand in Your presence one day.  We praise You for making The Word flesh so that we could be inheritors of the only bloodline without sin.  We rejoice in knowing that one day our holiness will be complete as we shed our earthly bodies and take on the pure, supernatural bodies that You have set aside for us.  We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us as we learn to shed the corruption of our flesh here on earth in preparation for the time that we go to our full glory with You in heaven.  We ask all these things in the name of the Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

Fit for Service

1 Corinthians 1:30
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
Without Jesus Christ in our lives, we are depraved and corrupt.  With the regenerating grace of God through His Son, Jesus, we are benefactors of the redemptive process.  We are freed from sin and made pure and holy in the eyes of Almighty God.  Through this salvation process, we receive all the fullness of the treasures of heaven so that we are fit for the service to which we have been called.  

Are we willing for God to make sanctification as real in us as it is in His Son, Jesus?  The sanctification process begins with submission.  The submission process begins when we humbly receive Jesus Christ as Our Redeemer.  Our sanctification begins immediately upon our submission to Our Savior.  The sanctification process flourishes as we deny ourselves and rely entirely on Jesus to release His holiness in our lives.  The sanctification process continues until the day we stand before the Lord in the fullness of our completed holiness.
Sanctification is impossible in our flesh alone.  It is only possible with the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in full operation in our lives.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we access all the perfections of Jesus and slowly, but surely, begin to live a life of holiness on this earth.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for taking us from the corruption of our old man into a condition of holiness in our new man in Christ.  We worship You and bless Your name from the fount of holiness that Our Savior has created within us.  We pray that we will receive the grace that we need to remain steadfast on our journey of sanctification.  We seek to have our journey become a living testimony to those who you have placed in our lives.  We pray for the wisdom and the courage to share our sanctification story with the flock that you have given us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ.

For the Two Cannot Abide Together

Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Upon receiving Jesus Christ as Our Savior, the Holy Spirit begins to show us what sanctification means. The job of the Holy Spirit is to show us what is pleasing in the sight of Our Savior.  As a result of this process, everything that we do that is displeasing to the Lord also comes to light. Thus begins the struggle of the old man versus the new man.
Jesus became man so that He could die for our sins.  When He comes to dwell within us, there is no room for the sins of the old man.  We must allow our old selves to die as we assume our new life in Christ.  The two cannot abide together.  To try and hold on to our old lives once Jesus has arrived is to enter into a struggle that is filled with endless pain. The new life of joy is found only in the death of our old lives.

As we work toward a life that is well pleasing in the sight of Jesus, we must recognize that the work of grace is necessary.  Without the good work of grace, we are not capable of overcoming the nature of the old man within us.  But be certain, the work of grace is not the work of man.  It is the work of God alone.  It is an internal work done in the heart of men by Him.  It is a gradual and progressive work.  It will not be perfected until we stand before Him.  But indeed, when we stand before Him all the displeasing things in us will be gone forever and all the pleasing things in His sight will shine brightly for all eternity.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Holy Word that defines the things that please you.  We praise You for revealing to us all the things in our lives that displease you.  We bless the name of Jesus for giving us victory over the sins that try to defeat us.  We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us in our struggles to overcome the torments of our flesh and the attacks of the enemy.  May the Holy Spirit enlighten us in the areas that the world tries to redefine as acceptable when You have already defined it as sin. May all that we do be acceptable in Your eyes. May it all be for Your glory.  We ask all these things in the name of the Captain of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ.

The Beatitudes Are About Relationship, Not Behavior

Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught about the good behavior that was required to earn the treasures of heaven and the rewards of the earth.  These teachings became known as The Beatitudes.  

All in all, for most people, The Beatitudes seem to offer rewards that do not seem reachable and require behavior that seems out of touch with what the world has to offer.  Our difficulty in understanding the Beatitudes lies in our frame of reference.  The Beatitudes become much clearer when we realize that The Beatitudes are not about our behavior, but all about our relationship with Jesus Christ and how it impacts our lives.   

It becomes even easier to understand The Beatitudes when we break them down into two sections and analyze them accordingly.  The first four Beatitudes specifically address our relationship with Jesus.  The remainder of the Beatitudes address how our lives will change when we accept Our Savior.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit” speaks to how far we fall short of the glory of God without His Son’s redemption.   “Blessed are those that mourn” speaks to our need to express our sorrow for our sinful ways.  “Blessed are the meek” speaks to our need to humble ourselves before Our Savior and accept the salvation that He offers us.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” speaks to our need to become new men and women in Christ.
When we have responded to the teachings of the first four Beatitudes by accepting Jesus as Our Savior, the character and actions in our lives become a reflection of the rest of the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.  With Christ indwelling in us, we are able to be merciful, be pure of heart and be peacemakers.  As a result, we will receive the rewards of this earth as promised by Jesus, but we will also be persecuted for our righteousness in Christ.  When all these things have happened to us and for us, we can rejoice and be glad for our reward will be great in the kingdom of God.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing to us our great need in Our Savior, Jesus.  We exalt the name of Jesus for it is through Him that we are given the kingdom of heaven.  We pray, Lord, for the humility to recognize our filthy and condemned nature without the saving grace of the Cross.  We ask that Your Holy Spirit will come along side of us and help us so that we will allow the power of the presence of Your Son in our lives to change how we serve You.  We pray that we receive the fullness of the blessings that are promised in the Beatitudes.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Rewarder, Jesus Christ.

The Awesome Convergence of Salvation and Sanctification

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Every born again believer stands in the same place.  We are not what we ought to be, but we are not what we use to be either.  This is the awesome convergence of salvation and sanctification.  We are at once saved when when we accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior.  From that moment on, we enter into the process of letting go of who we used to be in order to become who we will be in Christ.
Jesus loves us just as we are, but He loves us so much that He cannot allow us to stay where we are.  With His indwelling, we find ourselves in the constant battle of our old man (flesh) and our new man (our new spirit in Christ).  We must let go of everything old – guilt, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, addiction, depression, despair, fear.  These are the things of the flesh.  These are the things that hinder us in our process of sanctification.  These are the things that Jesus Christ freed us from when He died on the Cross. 
The progress of sanctification, dying to sin more and more, and living to righteousness more and more, is the work of the renewal of our minds.  This work will continue until the day we stand before Almighty God as He sees us in the image of His Son. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son to die for our sins so that we may be free from the corruption of our flesh.  We praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit to help us live as new men in Christ instead of men and women of the world.  Help us, Lord, to let go of everything in the old man that is hindering our relationship with You.  We pray that You strengthen us so that we may cling to Your grace as we continue in our journey of sanctification.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Refiner and Our Purifier, Jesus Christ.