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Thursday, June 23, 2011

More on faith

Now there is a lot more to faith than what I have written in the last few devotionals. What I want to do is to kind of wrap our series on faith up this week with a few more thoughts. But before we go on in our talk I want to go back to a basic principle of belief...and of faith.
Last Sunday during the sharing time, Rosa shared about how her father was saved; that is how he came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe she shared this verse, Romans 10:9 , for our study we go from verse 8b to 10, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Rosa shared that she told her father, that she couldn't say the words or believe for him, that he had to say it for himself...So with faith one has to do it for oneself, you can't rely on your parent's faith, your spouses or even if you go to the right church; faith, belief...in Jesus Christ is a decision one has to make on one's own. It is also a decision for one as to how he will continue to walk in faith... Now as we continue to walk, God is gracious to help us and also to let us walk with other believes...so we can encourage each other....to build up our faith.
Now there are more things to talk about, a lot, dealing with faith. I want to wrap it up with, obedience and love. Yes, that obey thing, it is still there after one is saved. You see one doesn't want to sin anymore, that is deep down, even though we find ourselves still sinning. We want to obey the Lord Jesus...but we still fall in little ways and also in big ways. Some things just seem to plague us, but as a believer we strive to not sin and when we do we should also be striving to confess it to God, and ask for forgiveness...Now why do we want to obey Jesus? Because of our love for Him. We love Him because He redeemed us(you). He paid the price for our sins, not only that He given us eternal life, not only that He made us new, not only that He blesses us with spiritual blessings, not only that He sent us the Holy Spirit, not only that He intercedes for us before the Father, not only that He is going to perfect us and the list goes on and on. He keeps on giving to us, even when we are not deserving...what great love!
I heard a man giving a message and he said this, "when one realizes how much it cost God to redeem you...for the forgiveness of your sin(s). How much He loves you. Then ones love for God will grow...because one realizes how sinful one is...how much God has forgiven and how patient He is with us(you). Reminds me of Luke 4:47"For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Let's face it I wish God only had to forgive me for only one sin; but my sins are many and not only that some of them I have a hard time with, committing them multiple times. Thanks be to our God, who is willing to forgive us our sins. 1John1:9"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So each time ones sins and has to confess...it should remind us how much God loves us and we should also start to love Him more or have more love for Him. You see God just didn't give us salvation, eternal life and the forgiveness of sin; but a whole lot more. He is showing His love to us daily! When we realize this/ see this/ experience this we can glorify God and the words of Jesus will play out in our lives, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. John 14:15. So another aspect of faith is love; let's call it "great love".

Friday, June 17, 2011

Faith and the Holy Spirit

Faith, do you have it; is it growing? We've been talking about faith for the last few weeks. From believing, trusting, remembering and also continued remembering. So, how do we know that we have faith in God? We sometimes get asked about when one accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, is that when we know? Some deep questions! So here will come some short answers, that will also go along with our discussion of faith. Guess this will have to be a 2 page devotional. We know we have faith, believe... born again, are part of the family of God... are a Christian; when our spirit comes alive. That is when our spirit comes alive, through Christ Jesus and at the same time when His Spirit abides(dwells) in us. Here are 2 set of verses to help us understand this; Eph. 2:1-4&5 "And you were dead in your trespasses and sin, ---But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." Let me throw in one side note and verse, James 2:26 "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." Yes, we all were dead before our acceptance of Jesus Christ, even though we were still walking around. Remember Pastor Paul's diagram of what makes up man? The 3 parts, body, mind and spirit. Well that is the spirit that we are talking about; it is dead before our acceptance... of Jesus Christ. Back to our next set of verses 1John 4:13 "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit." So this verse answer the question above. If you were like me this verse was hard to realize; it still left me with the deeper question of how does one really know He has the Spirit of God? What does one experience...?
The first thing one can experience is found in John 16:8 "And He, when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." That "He" is the Holy Spirit. Have you ever heard that voice within, saying you should not do that or this, because it is "bad"? Or when you are deciding to do something good, do you hear the voice within say yes do it? Now for judgment, let's just leave that for now. It is easy for children to understand this principle, but as adults some times over time our hearts become harden to the voice of God; that time thing again. We need to come to God as children, trusting children, and believing children. Then this verse will become more prominent in one's life.
The next thing one can notice is that the Word of God starts to make sense. It starts to have meaning...you begin to understand it. Be it from reading or hearing it preached. 1Cor.2:12-14 " Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritual appraised(examined)." Now these first 2 can be used of God before one is a Christian, example would be God open ones heart to hear the gospel for the first time.
There is also the giving of one's spiritual gift, 1Peter 4:10 "As each one has received a special gift..." Now I will not talk about this aspect in this devotion but it is also part of the answer to our question.
Now the last thing we are are going to talk about is found in Gal.5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control against such things are no law." The fruits of the Spirit will start to be more and more evident in one's life. That these traits will start to take on a newer meaning, a higher meaning...and one will start manifesting these traits in a renewed way. That these traits that one knew about before being a Christian, now are more desirable to the fullest extent. That one desires each trait more and more; that one strives to learn and comprehend these traits. But most important is that one begins to do these traits more and more. Somehow over time they become more natural; not to say we ever attain perfection in these areas, but we are always growing in them.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Faith and time

Now as we move on in our discussion of faith, we move into our growth spiritually. Now this does involve time, experience, learning...Some might grow in aspects of the Lord rather quickly, while others slowly, but that time thing plays a big part. Faith though it involves learning, it is more than learning and memorizing. It involves all aspects of one's life and the actions one does if every day life. The learning part helps us to know God's direction. That is learning the word of God. But, God also gives us the Holy Spirit, who helps us...
Now let's get back to the time thing. As we go through life time continues, day and night keep on coming. With each day different things come with it, our world is not a boring place! People are all around, things need to be done, places to go... Now this is where our faith starts to grow. As we see God working in our lives from day to day, in situation to situation, from task to task... When we see that He is helping us, protecting us...We learn to lean on our God, going from strength to strength(Psalm 84). The learning of life that is hands on. That, when you needed patience; God helps you to learn patience. Think about it, are you more patient than you were 2 years ago, 5 years, 10 years...and still even if it has been 30 years you find that you still need more patience. How do I know; because every day is different and guess what, some things just keep on coming, in different ways of course. Hopefully one is getting stronger with God's help and hopefully one begins to understand that we need God's help.
How many of you have teen-agers? For some strange reason they seem to have life figured out. They don't need wisdom from their parents...I'm not too sure but my dad tells me I was the same way. How foolish I was. Now that I am older I wished I had all that wisdom and experience that I have now, back when I was younger. You see our faith grows stronger as we go through the things of life with God's help. We must understand that it is the time thing, we don't go through all life situations all at once or in just a few short years. We started out our faith by believing the truth that God is real and His son is Jesus Christ. Then we moved on to that word of "trust", that we will trust God to do what He said He would do. Now let us remember the things God has done for us, in the "times of life" and ... It is so important to remember what God has done! The nation of Israel did, they held the Passover and other feasts. They built stone memorials, Ebenezer stone, 1Sam.7 . We are commanded to do it. The Lord's supper, " do this in remembrance of me." To remember the basic of our faith, the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ and eternal life. So we must always remember, to remember our God, to the race is finished and we are taken home. " We will never forget", we here that saying often, now let's say that statement about our God.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Faith

Faith, do you have it? Last week we mentioned that faith involves God, that He has a big part in us having more/stronger faith. You see we trust Him to do the things He said He will do. Blessings we receive in this present time and we look forward for blessings to come. We also come to the recognition that without Him we are hopeless (that's a good thought); we can't do things... to make ourselves to be better, perfect...that no matter how hard we try, well that bad side keeps popping up. Did you listen to Pastor Paul's message last week? Totally depraved. We also need God's help to make that decision of accepting His son Jesus. He calls! Then He gives us a helper, the Holy Spirit.
Now when we see the Holy Spirit working in our life; that is when our faith can get stronger. Our part is to recognize when God is working. To give Him the credit, praise...God does something for you, you praise Him...When He answers a prayer, you praise Him. When He is silent you praise Him. When He is working in others you praise Him. Now here is the hard part, when things get rough...and we have needs or we are in difficult places, we expect, sometime, God to work...right away. We forget that sometimes we are where we are because of our choices or because of sin. Or even God letting you be tested so your strength can be seen, like Job was tested. How easy it is for us to forget all that God has done for us. Don't we tend to do that, times get hard and we forget how God has worked in our life. Or we blame Him for whatever it is, or we just forget we live in a fallen world and believe the lie that God isn't here...We must remember all that God has done for us and all that He is going to do for us. We must never forget the simple gospel, that God so loved "you" that He gave His son. That He gave you eternal life...Like the song says," I'm forgiven because you were forsaken, I'm accepted you were condemned, ....Amazing love, How can it be that you my King should die for me?...Amazing love I know it's true, it's my joy to honor you..." Our part of faith is to cling to that true fact(s) of God. To remember the things...He is doing in our(your) life. We must give Him honor.... So remember to, praise, give honor, thanks, pray...

Faith

So we are still talking about faith. We ended by saying which leads to more faith. Let's change that more faith into stronger faith! Now how does one's faith increase or get's stronger? When we start talking about strength, strong.... we think about exercise. We need to do things to strengthen our faith...Yes, but also no. Yes we have a part but also God has a bigger part.
In life all types of things, situations, problems, decisions...come our way. Even when you become a Christian these things...still come your way; and not all of them are what we will call pleasant. Some may involve extra toil, some maybe pain, some financial cost, personal relationships hardship....now before we were Christians we had to work these out on our own...and sometimes the results were not to good...
Now as Christians we have God to help us in our struggles of life. We have God on our side. He is a present help in time of need. He even refers to us believers as His children. We can call on Him to help us. I want to stop there for a minute and give a thought that relates and then pick up with some example type...for an ending.
Have you ever thought how in life God uses situations...to grow you? Think about, have you ever wondered why the same type of thing keeps coming up? Then you get it, you do it God's way or with His strength and/or wisdom(not yours); and somehow the easy button was there. Now this doesn't mean that everything will be let's say easy, perfect...But you changed to God's way...that's how God perfects us; that's how our faith get's stronger.
Do you remember these 3 guy's? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Well they were the 3 guys who were going to be throw into the furnace for not bowing down to the golden image. In response to the king they said this Duet. 3:17-18 "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. Even if He does not, let it be known to you O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image you set up." God did rescue them.
How about Stephen, in the book of acts 6- 7. A believer doing great things for God, then just like that He was being stoned to death. The reason I used these 2 examples is to show that God can work...but sometimes He chooses to work in ways we don't understand. You see the strong faith of the 3 above, no matter what they would not turn from God and God rescues them. Stephen full of wisdom from above, the Holy Spirit. Did not back down when brought to trial. But unlike the 3, he was put to death. Now is your faith strong enough to endure to the end? Can it a mist of hardship...can you say, no matter what I will follow Jesus Christ, till He brings me home. Even when God seems not to be working?

Saturday, May 7, 2011

As we continue our look at faith we need to move on to the next essential word of our study. That is trust. We can believe in someone or something, that they or it was/is real. For example I believe that George Washington was a real person. That the pyramids in Egypt are real. Even though I have never seen either personally. That part is the first step, of faith. For us as we mentioned is to believe that God is real. But faith also involves the word trust. Without trust we only believe, and that belief will probably weaken...because we don't trust. For us that would be to trust, or to put our trust in God the father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit; God in three persons but one.
What does trust involve? Have you ever thought of that? To trust is to rely on the character, strength, ability and truth of someone. For us that is, that our God is Who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. Before we go too far lets introduce one more word that is; hope. For hope is also part of trust; you see when we trust someone we look forward to the accomplishment of what they said they could do; that is hope. For us we see who God is and what He can do and what He is going to do in His word, the bible. going to do things in His word, future things, and sometimes we get discouraged we want things now...You know what I mean? Life here gets hard, we want God to fix it, the now thing...fix my dilemma, problem or other problems...we lose focus that God did/ will fix everything but that it is in the future; that's our hope (heaven). We fall into the trap or lie that once you put your trust in God your life will become easy, no more problems...We place things on God or try to demand God to do...when He tells us it will be done in the future. Even when He tells us that life here will still be hard. So let me end with one thing that I know God does here for us believers for those who have faith in Him and His son Jesus Christ. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Have you confessed to God your sin or sins and felt the forgiveness? It's wonderful, isn't it. So don't forget that, keep on trusting and putting your trust in our God and His son the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see God working in our lives doing what He said, not what we think, that is how our faith grows stronger. So our faith is in Jesus Christ the son of the one true God.
So we believe that God is and we put our trust in Him that He will do what He says He can do. Which comes to more belief. God tells us that He is
So, sometimes do you wonder? Wonder if I had done that, would I be better off? Do you sometimes wonder about God? Who He is? What is He doing? Or even sometimes, maybe, is He real? Is this going to church...following Jesus...is it real, does it have meaning.... Now these later questions are some hard questions. It is not easy to share with someone that you are struggling with your faith in God. But we all must realize that these times come. Now they come in all different ways and times...Sometimes one will question the reality of God and His son, Jesus and walk away...for a short period of time. Others for a longer period of time and still others walk away for good.
So the next few devotionals we are going to talk about faith. So when those times come we will be better prepared to stand strong and not falter in our faith...about God and His son Jesus Christ. First let's get a definition of faith: 1. Allegiance to duty or a person. 2.belief and trust in and loyalty to God. 3.something that is believed. If we look at this definition there are two words that are critical to having faith, belief (believe) and trust.
The first thing one has to do is believe. Believe that God is. That is, that there is one God who's son is Jesus Christ. In our modern world it is hard for one to get to that point of believing in God. There are so many theories...and things that get in the way. They too are pulling you to belief. Never mind being too busy to hear the call of God. Now some might say they don't believe in God or anything...but they do have belief. They believe that there is no God, they might even recognize there might be a God....but they are unsure; not willing to believe totally. Do you believe that God is real? That the God of the Holy bible is real? That Jesus Christ, God's son is real? That what is written about Him is real? That this God is living...and still working in the world? That He loves you? That He wants to have a relationship with you? That, this relationship is available through Jesus Christ?
You see when you start to believe in God; you will start to realize that there is a lot more about God. Good things about God and His son Jesus Christ, to believe. Now believe means: to consider to be true; or to accept as true. So when times come that have you questioning your faith, you need to go back to the basic principle that God is real; and that I (we) believe this to be a true fact, for it is a fact. No matter what comes our way we need not lose sight of this basic truth. There is one true God, who's son is Jesus Christ.
So, sometimes do you wonder? Wonder if I had done that, would I be better off? Do you sometimes wonder about God? Who He is? What is He doing? Or even sometimes, maybe, is He real? Is this going to church...following Jesus...is it real, does it have meaning.... Now these later questions are some hard questions. It is not easy to share with someone that you are struggling with your faith in God. But we all must realize that these times come. Now they come in all different ways and times...Sometimes one will question the reality of God and His son, Jesus and walk away...for a short period of time. Others for a longer period of time and still others walk away for good.
So the next few devotionals we are going to talk about faith. So when those times come we will be better prepared to stand strong and not falter in our faith...about God and His son Jesus Christ. First let's get a definition of faith: 1. Allegiance to duty or a person. 2.belief and trust in and loyalty to God. 3.something that is believed. If we look at this definition there are two words that are critical to having faith, belief (believe) and trust.
The first thing one has to do is believe. Believe that God is. That is, that there is one God who's son is Jesus Christ. In our modern world it is hard for one to get to that point of believing in God. There are so many theories...and things that get in the way. They too are pulling you to belief. Never mind being too busy to hear the call of God. Now some might say they don't believe in God or anything...but they do have belief. They believe that there is no God, they might even recognize there might be a God....but they are unsure; not willing to believe totally. Do you believe that God is real? That the God of the Holy bible is real? That Jesus Christ, God's son is real? That what is written about Him is real? That this God is living...and still working in the world? That He loves you? That He wants to have a relationship with you? That, this relationship is available through Jesus Christ?
You see when you start to believe in God; you will start to realize that there is a lot more about God. Good things about God and His son Jesus Christ, to believe. Now believe means: to consider to be true; or to accept as true. So when times come that have you questioning your faith, you need to go back to the basic principle that God is real; and that I (we) believe this to be a true fact, for it is a fact. No matter what comes our way we need not lose sight of this basic truth. There is one true God, who's son is Jesus Christ.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Wow another snow storm and the cold weather. But have you noticed, how warm the sun light feels? Even when it's real cold, it seems not so cold when you are in the sun, this time of year. Maybe it's me but the sun seems to be brighter. Winter is still here for a while but feeling the warmth of the sun, let's us look forward to spring.
Sometime doesn't it just seems cold. You bundle up...and you still feel cold. Ever had days like that, you just can't warm up. We get the wood stove running hotter, turn the furnace...temp. up. That chill just seems to stay in the air. Now sometimes you are the only one that feels that chill; other around you are comfortable....warm.
The chill of life, also sometimes comes upon us also. You know what I mean. You start to wonder about things.... you start to wonder about God. What is He doing; has He forgotten about me? Can't He see that I am hurting...I can't handle the pressure, I'm alone...everything seems to be going wrong...I'm lost, I don't know what to do. These things come up in our lives in all different forms, intensities...Sometimes they are so strong they grab us, the take hold...doing all kinds of things. We wonder and then sometimes wander...
So what do we do? It may seem like I'm giving an easy answer, but I also know how hard it is to do... The answer is to get up and go stand in the light, the Son light. For us as believers that is to get up and turn to Jesus our Lord and Savior. He is the light of the word, much brighter... than the sun light mentioned above. You see, when we are at turmoil deep inside and outside, recognize there is a battle going on ; we need Jesus. Go stand in the light and see what He can do for you. Matt. 11:29 -30 "Come to Me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you shall find rest for souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light." Now this doesn't mean our problems disappear, but that He will help us through...Now I said stand in the Light but also notice you need to put your head in that yoke, the one Jesus has. That means putting our yoke down(taking our yoke off). Get into the Son.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

What do you believe

What do you believe? And with that we can also ask the question, what don’t you believe? Why are those 2 questions so important? Well the first is important as to believing in truth, facts….versus not believing in truth, facts…Or secondly we could believe in things that are not true, facts.. and not to believe in the truth, fact…Sometimes it is very easy to get confused in what we believe and what we don’t believe. Sometimes we believe something, a truth, but in actuality we don’t believe all of what it means…and sometimes we want to mix the truth with non-truth to fit our own desires or reasoning. Sometimes we compromise the truth, to fit in with society…compromise in some areas is not good.
In Ex.3:16 “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob has appeared to me” God tells Moses to say to the elders this; the history of the one true God. It is important that we also believe in the one true God. So often in the Old Testament we see the phrase God of Abraham….This the God we believe in. Now let’s go forward to the New Testament and also look at the Lord Jesus.
In Matt.3:17 “and lo a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Now we can read a lot more in the Gospels about our Lord. We must remember that He is the Son of God, He is God….and we must never diminish His position of God and the things He said or the things He has done or the things He is going to do.
If we look around today we don’t see a lot of idols (statues) around; some but not many. But there are a lot of religions around pulling or trying to pull us into compromising our faith; that is to accept that there are other god’s just like the one true God. Now I’m not talking about being radical…but rather to be on guard, to hold fast to the one true God and His son Jesus Christ. To follow Him and Him alone. One more quick note read His word.

Memory verse Acts20:35 “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Saturday, November 27, 2010

mood

Rain, rain go away and come back some other day! Do you ever remember saying that? Even this week with all the rain, it might be nice to say that. But what day would you want to get all that flooding rain? Like we can have a choice. For some of us this rain is just an inconvenience, for others harder work and for others maybe a disaster. Bring it on another day may make things worst…who knows. Well for us the rain is here and our life will go on and yes we may get wet or more. Hopefully none of us will suffer greatly.
Now as believers how does this rain affect you? How does bad weather…(other things that cause hardship) in your life affect you? Are you one to wake up, see the rain and there goes your countenance and your mood changes. Depending on the circumstances, how much of a change there will be and how much you will let the world know. Even some of us want everyone else to share some of this mood you are in or at least really know about it; and sometimes really to know about it. You know what I mean? There is a fine line about talking about, things, verses crossing the “line” where we are in a mood that is not becoming of our Christian walk.
There are 2 things I want to point out. The first would have to be with our looks, attitude and the second is our speech, complaining. You can affect people with just the way you look; you know that disgusted, not happy… look. Also we can affect people with our complaining, in various ways. You know sometimes we don’t even realize we are doing it, the look or complaining. It sometimes becomes natural in situations. The verse we need to make part of our lives is, Phil. 2:14 -15 “Do all things without grumbling or complaining; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as light in the world.” It deals with the verbal (beginning) and the so called, look, at the end. Let’s shine for our Lord.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Have you

Have you ever acted badly? Have you ever thought badly? Now we’re not talking only about the real bad things here; but the seemingly un-harmful things also. The deeds that are being done that most people are doing and you just fall right in or the thoughts that change your thinking about God and about men (persons). If you would just take a minute and ponder, you will know what we mean. All that bad stuff, have you ever said to yourself, “What am I doing?” or “What am I thinking? or down the road a while, the “What was I thinking?” Don’t you long for the day when you just act rightly? Now I’m not talking about never being wrong…but that deep down our motives were/are good. For me sometimes I wish that I could go back in time and correct those things where I was “bad”, wasn’t up to par…where I acted or thought in a sinful way. There I said it, sin! But we can’t go back in time and we have to deal with our actions and thoughts.
Dealing with these “bad” things is not easy. Well for me it isn’t easy but for us Christians the process is not that complicated. We need to humble our selves before God. That is when God, through the Spirit, convicts us we must listen. Like ask the question, “Did I do that Lord?” And we should already know the answer, yes, He’s convicting you. Now we need to repent, confess our bad actions, thoughts to God and ask forgiveness. Then sometimes you may need to take care of business with people also if needed, that is asking their forgiveness. Then there needs to be a change; we don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over. We need to ask God to help us to change that action, thought…and to replace it with the good. Now the verse would be Phil. 1:6 “ for I am confident of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ.” Aren’t you glad that God is working in our lives? He’s doing a good work!

Friday, October 15, 2010

New commitment

Are you a happy person or a sad person? What kind of disposition would mark you? Happy, sad, joyful, full of life, energetic, complainer, woe is me…You see as Christians we are different. We have a God who is mighty…and Who cares for us; more than we can imagine. But we live here on earth and with all the stuff that comes with it. One of them is called Satan (devil) and yes, he is real. Now what I want us to do, is to look at the book of Job this week, the first chapter. In chapter one we see Satan going before God and God says, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and up right man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” “Have you not made a hedge around him and all his house and all that he has…..” He continues telling God, to take away Jobs, let’s call it, wealth and he will curse you (God). So God allows Satan to touch Job’s wealth, which includes his family, which Satan does.
You see Satan is an accuser of God’s people , Rev.12:10. The word there in Job actually means, adversary. Look at what he says of Job; Job only follows you because you bless him and protect him. Then he asks God to take away those blessings. God takes down part of the protection and allows Satan to take away those blessing, wealth. A test/ trial of Job to see if he really follows God. Or maybe God proving to Satan that Job is the real deal. At the end of chapter one Job says this, “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Yes, Job is the real deal. Now in 2010 are we the real deal? Are you and I the real deal when things are taken away, with held, our life is in turmoil, when we hurt…? Will we bless the Lord in the hard times? Now don’t get me wrong that it’s not a struggle sometimes. Read on and you will see that Job had that struggle, but He did not fall. Sometimes we don’t understand why things happen, bad things, hurtful things…But no matter what comes our way will we continue to bless the Lord and to trust Him? Can we sing that song “Blessed be the name” with a renewed commitment to God? Can we continue to go to church and worship our Lord? Yes we can, we have a great God, worthy of praise.

A little change

A little bit of a change for the start of this years/ season of devotionals ( the title). Sometimes we need change in our lives. To mix things up a bit. That is true of us as Christians. The change that we are talking about is not the same as the world thinks, but the change as God will have for us. There he goes again, you maybe thinking, telling us about changing to be a better husband, father…well yes. But hold on a bit, hear me out on this issue. When we think of change as believers sometimes we only think of the on going work of Jesus, dealing with our sinful habits, ways; our wrong thinking…and yes we need to change in that regard.
The change that I’m talking about here is the one of getting out of a routine that is, same old…We have a schedule and we don’t break it or go out of order. Know I’m not talking about work schedules, school schedules…but the things we do with our free time schedules. Some things we do just characterize us and some times it keeps us from doing different things. Also sometimes we don’t do things because of a so called dislike, it’s takes a little effort, not to sure of the new ground and sometimes because of fear. So what we need to do as men is to not get stuck in the routine of life, we’re we start to be boring. Last week we talked about be excited about going to church and Sunday school. Which is a good routine to get in to. Now as Christians there are a lot of other things we can do also to spice up our Christian life. That is to reach out. What do I mean reach out? That is to do something different. O.K. Let’s just go to a list of things, this will help us with this topic. Go to a Faith groups, Pot luck supper, bible studies, invite a family for dinner, go help a brother, check out the youth ministries or other ministries (you don’t have to join but it’s o.k. to check them out), start doing things with friends….Sometimes we need to stop doing things, for me turn off the t.v. ,there is so much available to us in this modern day. Being a Christian should be fun. So a little change is good as long it is directed toward the good.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Renew commitment

What a busy summer! It seems that business/fun …marked this summer and can you believe it, Sept. is here. Even with this great weather I still have the urge to go away again, fun, fun, fun. Things are different in the summer. So this weekend, Labor day, the signal that we are done with the summer schedule and back to the grind of life; that is work, school….and with that the change, the change of our church services(Sunday school again). Are you like me? That it even seems easier to be back in routine of going to church and all the activities that start up. Let’s be honest, during the summer, it seems easy to do less of those activities. Also let’s be honest, during the summer, it seems that we even get lacks on our, let’s call it “devotions”. We forget, get busy… do the quick prayer thing….well it’s summer.
You want to know something? Some of us will struggle with getting back into the routine of going to church and those activities (good activities). How do I know? Well being almost well rounded, I have had my struggles with this through out the years. In James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”( I know there is more to that verse) What we need to do as men is to be excited about going to church….Seeking that part of drawing near to God, and more and more in other areas too. Guess what guys? It’s football season! Remember what “Super Sunday” means for us. Yes, we should look forward to every Sunday, to draw near to God.
So this week as men let’s get excited about going to church, that is to worship, seek…our Lord. Let’s be the examples for our families. Be the guys who are up early, helping to get the family ready, breakfast…planning the day before, excited. One more thing let’s start up that memory verse thing. So the first verves will be what Pastor Paul asked us to do.

Eph. 2:4-8 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show us the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of god; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand so that we would walk in them