Tag: truth

The Last Things Jesus Told His Disciples

John 14:31
But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

This passage represents the culmination of what could be considered the last will and testament of Jesus given to the His disciples before He left them. In the prior verses of John 14, Jesus promised many things to comfort His disciples. He also revealed a number of truths critical to their faith.

He encouraged His disciples as He told them that He was leaving them to prepare a place for them with Him in heaven. He emphasized the He is the way, the truth and life and that the only way that anyone enters into a prepared place in heaven is through Him.

Jesus confirmed the Godhead to the apostles as He commanded them to “believe in Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Later He comforted the disciples when He told them that the Holy Spirit would be sent in His name by the Father to be their Helper in His absence.

Jesus provided the disciples with more encouragement as He told them that they would do greater works than He had done because He was going to the Father to represent them. He emphasized that anyone that believes in Him will also be able to do greater works than He did.

Jesus promised them His peace and commanded them not to be troubled or afraid of the evil that would come against them. He emphasized that the victory was theirs because He has power over the enemy.

Jesus’ final command to them was, “Rise, let us go from here.” This is our command as well.

Let us receive the supernatural power that we are promised through the presence of Our Savior in our lives. Let us live a life without trouble in our hearts because of the promises of Our Redeemer. Let us rise from whatever circumstances that we find ourselves and let us show the world the peace that we have in Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the peace that reigns in our lives. We thank You, Jesus, for the peace that You brought us through Your shed blood. We praise You, Lord, for providing the supernatural power that we need to live our lives without fear of any man or any circumstance. We pray that You will equip us, embolden us and strengthen us so that we may be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect peace. We ask all these things in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

The Pathway to Hope

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.

Let us seek the way of holiness that is found in Jesus Christ. Let us learn to live in the light of Christ even though the world around us lives in darkness. Let us become beacons of His light.

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.

When Sharing God’s Word, Speak the Truth as It is Written in the Bible

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 so that we may know that You have a perfect plan for our lives here on earth and in Your eternal kingdom. We exalt Your Name 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.

Nothing Can Disturb Us, Distress Us or Steal Our Peace When We Are One with Christ

Luke 21:19
By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Jesus warned His apostles of the hard times to come. He foretold the trials and persecution that they would suffer after He left. He comforted them with His promise that if they persevered in the ways of God and in the truths that He had given them, they would possess peace and joy in their souls. He also told them that the world would not be able to take away their joy if they lived in the fullness of His presence.

So it is with us. We have our own trials to bear in our lives. The Lord teaches us to let nothing disturb or distress us. He instructs us not to submit to the moodiness that might come upon us due to our circumstances. We must take on the Spirit of the One who dwells within us. We must endure, knowing that we have already been given victory over our circumstances. We must allow Jesus to do His work in us, overcoming the moodiness that our flesh would like to lay on us, so that we can press on and do the work that He calls us to do in the world. May we learn to patiently bear all afflictions on our bodies, bear all attacks and indignities tossed our way by our critics and bear all difficulties dealt to us by the world.

Let us be determined to allow nothing to disturb us, distress us or steal our peace. Let us learn to live joyfully in the presence of Jesus Christ under all circumstances.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for granting us victory through Jesus over everything in the world that tries to take our joy away. We rejoice in knowing that we can have joy even when happiness eludes us. We pray that You will teach us how to seek the strength we need when our mood turns us toward our problems instead of our solution, Your Son, Jesus. May the world see our joy in all circumstances so that they may be drawn to the One who provides it. We ask all these things in the name of Our Stronghold, Jesus Christ.

Becoming Bold Ambassadors of the Infallible Word of God

Acts 24:16
So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

Paul spoke these words when he was giving an account of himself to his followers. He was under attack from his enemies at the time. He wanted his followers to know that he was under attack because he was leading a life that conflicted with how his attackers wanted to live their lives. Paul may have been the first to warn us about living our lives according to political correctness and not according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

How many of us take the comfortable silent path of “tolerance” in order to avoid being accused of being a fervent believer and devoted servant of Jesus Christ? Unfortunately, this is exactly where the world wants us. Much of what we see, hear and read that comes from the world is designed to desensitize us to evil and to move us away from the holy life style to which Jesus Christ calls us. When we give in to what the world wants to hear, we give in to Satan. We diminish our testimony that goes out to those who need to hear the truth.

It has become all too common to hear of the slaughter of Christians around the world. In most of these heinous cases, the martyrs are asked to deny Christ. Those who proclaim their loyalty to their Savior are subsequently beheaded or otherwise mercilessly killed. What is remarkable is how many continue to proclaim their faith in the face of the slaughter. Be certain that the faith of the first victim works to strengthen all the way to the last victim. One after another they lift and strengthen each other.

We will be held accountable for our testimony. What we stand for does make a difference.

Let us stand on the infallible Word of Almighty God. Let us strengthen one another through the bold expression of our faith.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to keep us mindful of the truths that You have revealed to us through the life of Your Son, Jesus, and through the writings in Your Holy Word. We pray that You enlighten us so that we may avoid the tricks of the wicked designed to get us to accept the self-serving ways of the flesh. As we live by your Word, Lord, we ask that You strengthen us to stand up to the ridicule and hatred of the world. Teach us, Lord, to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to become bold ambassadors for Our Savior. May those around us be strengthened by our faith. We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

The Way We Live Reveals Christ to Others

1 Peter 3:1-2
Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

God is a respecter of no man. Therefore, what He directs to one, He directs to another. Therefore, whatever He directs to the wives, He also directs to the husbands. Therefore, whatever He directs to husbands and wives, He also directs for all relationships.

What Peter is teaching us is that we do not change the lives of our mates, or others around us, by our words. We change the lives of those around us by changing our own lives in accordance with the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Through our new lives in Christ, and not through our words, all around us are drawn to the truth that is working within us.

As the Holy Spirit changes us, He will also change our spouses and others in our lives. The Holy Spirit will work continuously to strengthen our marriages by making Jesus Christ the foundation of our union. He will work continuously to open the eyes of those around us to the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us. Let us strive to have the world see the presence of Jesus Christ in our daily lives. Let us lead lives that are marked by purity and reverence.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the institution of marriage. We thank You for providing us with mates who complete us in Christ. We pray, Lord, that You will show us how to surrender our individual lives to the work of the Holy Spirit so that He can build the foundations of our marriages in Jesus Christ. We thank You for providing us with friends and family to help build us up. May our lives open their eyes to the wondrous work of Jesus Christ. May He become the cornerstone of all our lives. We ask all these things in the name of our rock and our foundation, Jesus Christ.

The Danger of Bending God’s Holy Word to Make it More Pleasing

1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

When laying tile, one of the first things that is done is snapping a chalk line to establish a true 90 degree angle to the two walls. If the chalk line is one degree off, it is not true. There is no tolerance for this measure. The line is either a true 90 degrees or it is not true. A mistake in setting a true line will doom the project.

The world would like to teach us that there are many ways to heaven besides accepting Jesus Christ as Savior. It is sad to say that Satan has done a remarkable job selling this line of thinking, putting a large portion of mankind in danger of missing the way, the truth and the life that is only found in Jesus.

We Christians must be extremely careful not to bend the Word of God to fit today’s culture. The Word of God is the truth. God’s Word is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow. Jesus Christ alone is the firm, abiding and immovable Rock of Ages. In every way, He is able to bear all the weight of the sins of mankind that has been placed upon Him. He alone can bear this load. He alone is the trustworthy foundation. Anyone who aligns their lives with anyone or anything other than Jesus Christ will find eternal doom in their future.

Making God’s Word more pleasing to others is not being tolerant. It is abandoning what is true. More importantly, massaging God’s Word to make it more acceptable to the world endangers the eternal lives of those that we may be trying to appease.

Let us stand firm on the Word of God. Let us make the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ, our foundation. Let us boldly proclaim the promises that only He can deliver.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Word is true and that Your promises are certain. May You open our hearts to receive the fullness and truth in the precepts that You reveal to us through Your Holy Word. May You embolden us to speak the truth about Your Son as the world around us rejects Him. May You strengthen us to stand firmly on the foundation that only He provides. We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

The Process of Understanding and Assimilating What God Has Prepared for Us

John 16:12
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

Almighty God has created each of us to fulfill a unique need in His kingdom. His plan for our lives is much, much bigger than anything that we have ever imagined. We are just not ready to take it all in. Our flesh simply gets in the way with what the Holy Spirit has to teach us. And of course, for many of us, we dig our own holes which makes the process even harder. Nonetheless, for those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, His spirit will provide our strength where we are weak.

Even the apostles were not ready to receive and understand all the teachings of Jesus. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, their flesh simply could not handle what was going to be revealed to them in the spirit. It was only after Pentecost that the apostles were able to boldly proclaim the full gospel.

What a wonderful transformation when the Holy Spirit opens our minds to receive and understand the things that made no sense to us or had no value for us before. In the blink of an eye, our blinders are removed. Without even being cognizant of the process, we begin to assimilate truths that had been unavailable to us before. Then, just as suddenly we are able to share them with those who have been prepared to receive them.

Let us prepare our hearts to receive all that the Holy Spirit has for us. Let us fulfill the plans that Almighty God has created us to fulfill. Let us become all that God has created us to be.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Wonderful Counselor that You have provided to guide and instruct us. We humbly ask that You prepare us to receive all that the Holy Spirit has to teach us. May we become willing vessels, ready to take on the fullness of Your living water. We pray that we will be eager to have the living water pass through us to bring life and enlightenment to those around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Living Water, Jesus Christ.

The Endless Flow of the Love of God

1 John 4:16
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

God is love. His love is unconditional and without end. His love for us is expressed explicitly through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. His love for us is reinforced daily by the counsel of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Through His love, Almighty God gives us an unfailing hope for our future. Let us not lose sight of the truth that our hope for our future is so much more than how we feel about our future or what the world tells us about our future. Our hope rests upon a very special love gift from God. Our hope is built upon the Good News of God for the world that He loves us so much that He gave us His Son so that we may have eternal life.

Through His love, Almighty God also gives us His Holy Spirit to stand by us, to give us the strength to bear all things that come against us and the spiritual maturity to endure all the tribulations that make up life on this earth. His grace is poured out on us in this manner so that we may overcome the world.

Most importantly, Almighty God created a spot in our hearts so that we could receive His love and return it to Him. He gave us the capacity to share His love with the world around us. He gave us the Holy Spirit so that our love could be an endless spring. When we are living in accordance with the Holy Spirit within us, we are capable of extraordinary service to those around us. By returning our love to the Father through our service to those around us, we become living testimonies of His perfect love.

Let us prepare our hearts to become vessels of God’s perfect love and forgiveness. Let us show the world His love through our compassionate sharing of the love He has given us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us unconditionally. We thank You that Your love flows to us endlessly. Prepare our hearts, Lord, so that we may become vessels of Your perfect love. Cleanse us, Lord, of anything in our hearts that would restrict the flow of Your love in our lives. May we bear much fruit for Your kingdom through the spontaneous release of Your love to the world around us. We pray, Father, that the world will be drawn to Your Son when they see Your love at work in us. We ask all these things in the name of the One who delights in our steadfast love, Jesus Christ.

Putting Our Faith in Christ and Not in Fallible Men

Psalm 119:19
I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.

God’s commandments have been given to us. They are not new and there is no revised edition. The Lord’s commandments have been the same for thousands of years and will be the same as long as time exists. They are pure enlightenment, so needful for our journey in time on this earth.

Along with His commandments, Our Heavenly Father also has given us His inerrant Holy Word to confirm His guidelines for our lives. There is nothing hidden from us except what we manage to hide from ourselves. We have allowed our fellow man to take the laws of Almighty God and hide them from us by replacing them with the laws of fallible men.

The laws of fallible men invariably turn toward tolerance of things that are not pleasing to God and these same laws are used to pressure one another into accepting wrongful behavior as truth. We must guard against becoming citizens of this earth and foreigners in God’s kingdom. In this day and time, we must dare to be strangers in our own land.

Let us follow the commandments and the inerrant Word provided to us by Almighty God. Let us guard against being drawn into the thinking of those who wish to deviate from God’s plan. Let us live in Christ and not in this world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is revealed to us in Your Holy Word. We bless the name of Jesus who is the Word made flesh. Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit may direct us to repent of the things in our lives that are not pleasing to You. We ask for the strength to turn away from these displeasing things and the grace to turn toward all that is pleasing to You. We beseech You that all of our faith will be in Jesus Christ and not in the world. As we surrender to Your will, equip us, Lord, to reveal Your kingdom to those around us. We ask all these things in the name of the One who is with us until the end of the age, Jesus Christ.