Few That Find It

 

When we consider the parable of the sower of seeds, we realize that only one-fourth of the seed scattered actually falls on good soil and bears fruit (Matthew 13:18). That means that only a quarter of those who hear the gospel of Jesus Christ are actually converted.

When Jesus lived on this earth, a multitude followed Him; but just a few actually bore fruit from His ministry to them. Jesus, the personification of God Himself, presented a life and testimony of the reality of God's existence; yet it did not impact the lives of most of those around Him.

Noah preached the Good News for 120 years and even built a huge ark for the known world at that time to see; yet, only his immediate family boarded the ark and were saved.

The reason for this is that there are two gated roads in life. One is broad and many find it; yet it leads to eternal destruction. Then, there is the narrow gate and road, which lead to everlasting life; but very few actually enter it (Matthew 7:13-14).

This fact causes me to weep uncontrollable tears for those people who allow pride and rebellion to keep them from entering the straight and narrow road to salvation. I intercede for them day and night to have a change of heart.

The toll has already been paid by the shed blood of Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:18-19). It is a free gift of God (Romans 6:23). Yet the multitude of people born on this earth condemn themselves by refusing to take that fork in the road, which leads to eternal life (John 3:18).

This highway is called the Way of Holiness for those who walk on it; yet the wicked and foolish will not travel down it; they will avoid it at all costs, even the cost of their own salvation (Isaiah 35:8).

God gives everyone a choice to totally surrender their life to Him (John 3:16-17). However, just a remnant of those born into this world will take advantage of the opportunity to live in abundant peace and joy now and throughout eternity (Isaiah 11:16).

Prayer:

Father God, we commit to daily pray for those still alive and those who will be born in the future to have the desire to walk on the straight and narrow road. Strengthen their inner being to respond to Your Spirit and to accept the sacrifice of Your dear Son as their own (Ephesians 1:16). They will gain the pearl of great price, the treasure in the field and Your eternal life (Matthew 13).

So many hear, but shut up the ears of their understanding. They look, but choose not to see. Their hearts are fat with self-indulgence and heavy with the cares of this world. Their ears are dull from the false doctrine of the world (Matthew 5:18-19).

They close their eyes and sleep to avoid responding to Your Truth. They will not turn to You and allow You to heal them (Matthew 13:14-16). I pray for them to allow Your Spirit to open the eyes of their understanding, so they can enjoy the riches of Your pleasures forevermore (Ephesians 1:18; Psalm 16:11; Proverbs 3:16).

Thought for the Day:

Jesus made it very clear that He is the only way, truth and life; and anyone who believes in Him shall never die, but will live eternally with Him in our Father's Kingdom. - John 14:6

This Free Gift is Yours

 

At the age of 18, I was plagued with negative emotions from betrayal by my father, who was supposed to protect me. I tired of my string of boyfriends, because I could not find my soulmate. 

I wrote morbid poems about the devastation, which I felt inside, and I even contemplated suicide. This drove me to question the empty spot within myself, which called out to me for fulfillment.

Thankfully, during an extra work-day to ready our college yearbook for press, I met a vivacious red-head who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with me (John 3:16-18).

This resulted in God giving me feet like hind's feet to traverse the heights of His love (Habakkuk 3:19; Psalm 18:33; 2 Samuel 22:34). Since then, I feel no shame in proclaiming to the world that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Lord.

So often, we reject Christ, because we fear the rejection of our family and friends, as well as ostracism by those we respect and hold in high esteem. Yet, we are willing, by our unbelief, to alienate the King of kings for all eternity.

I share the free gift of the gospel of Christ with anyone who will listen. I view every stranger as a potential friend, and I realize that everyone I pass in a day's time is a prospective member with me in the family of God.  

Christ paid the ultimate price for our salvation, but He gives it to us as a free gift (Romans 6:23). We do not deserve it, and we cannot earn it (Ephesians 2:8-9). We simply receive it. 

There is no end to God's love. I want everyone to enjoy God's bountiful benefits. There is no valid reason to miss out on His free gift (Psalm 103:2).

Prayer:

Father God, Your love is boundless and Your generosity is limitless. You spoil us as Your children and You share with us the inheritance of Your Kingdom for all of eternity. We simply need to believe and to surrender our entire body, soul and spirit to Your Lordship.

You do not demand perfection before we come to You; you perfect us from glory to glory once we trust You with our life (2 Corinthians 3:18). Your only requirement to receive Your free gift of salvation is that we love you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Romans 6:23; Mark 12:30). This is so easy to do, because we simply respond to Your love for us.

Thought for the Day:

God gives us both the desire and the ability to walk in obedience to His ways. -  Philippians 2:13

Yoke Fellows

In our former unsaved life, this world’s system drove us into a frantic pace. We lived for the week-end and filled our free time as full as our work day. Nothing really satisfied us, and we tried many avenues of adventure and recreation in order to find that activity, which would bring us contentment. We even tried God, but were turned off by some church members or the tragedy in this world.

Then, one day someone presented to us the gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that it pierced like an arrow right into our heart. We knew without a doubt that the vacuum in our life could only be satisfied with a personal, intimate relationship with the God of the universe who created us in the first place. We see that complete surrender is the only key to a God-honoring, productive and fulfilling life.

We seek out the fellowship of other Believers. We no longer demand our own way, but we submit to God’s will and consult His plans for each moment of our day (Proverbs 3:5-6). This would be impossible, except for the fact that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We are grafted onto the Vine of Christ and God is the vine dresser.

Jesus tells us to take His yoke upon us, because it is easy and light (Matthew 11:30). When we hook up with Christ in His yoke and move in tandem with Him, our day is more successful and we are more fulfilled. If we get out from under His yoke, or if we pull Him in our direction, we only end up frustrating our self and getting out of God’s will for us. As a yoke fellow with Jesus we have His peace and joy.

Prayer:

Father God, Your love for humanity knows no bounds; and yet, people fail to see Your heart. They read Your Word and see only Your justice and interpret that as malevolence. They think you are supposed to act according to human standards of love, permissiveness would be a better word. However, Your love is righteous and always just. Open the eyes of the unbelievers to see their need for Your love and protection.

Thought for the Day:

Freedom comes with surrender to the love of Christ resident within us.

The Wisdom of Mankind

Read: John 3:16-18

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.” -

1 Corinthians 1:25

When people attempt to understand the things of the Spirit with their human mind, they have no success. People without God’s Spirit dwelling within them do not accept the Truth that comes from God, because it sounds foolish to them. They cannot understand God’s Truths, because it is spiritually discerned and cannot be received by an unregenerate mind (1 Corinthians 2:14). Unbelievers look at the various points of the Gospel and ridicule it as ludicrous. It makes no sense to them at all. They think they are wise, but the Bible calls them fools (Psalm 14:1, 53:1).

These atheistic people divide the world, because they follow mere natural instincts and they do not have the Spirit of God within them (Jude 1:19). They say that if there is a God, He is an omnipotent being who is playing a game with humanity through an elaborate scheme, which to them does not make any sense at all. God designed the message of the cross this way. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). What they fail to take into consideration is that their spirit is dead in sin. They cannot possibly understand the Gospel, because they cannot see it from its spiritual perspective. They are not willing to surrender their life to God.

They live by a worldly philosophy derived from a perception without Christ dwelling within them. Therefore, they cannot receive Jesus, because they are not looking for Him and they do not recognize Him or His work in the world. Only Born Again Believers know Him, because He lives in us through His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven (John 14:7). We actually preach Christ crucified, and this is a stumbling block to Jews, as well as to every other culture, which foolishly cling to unbelief (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The Holy Spirit clearly states that even some people who were taught the Truth will abandon their beliefs and follow deceiving spirits (1 John 5:19). They consider the Gospel to be idiotic, and they are too smart to waste time with religion. These unbelievers are controlled by their sinful, unconverted nature. They do not have the Spirit of Christ, because they have not repented of their sins and they do not believe in Christ as their Savior. They do not belong to Christ. Their thinking does not come from heaven. It is secular, unspiritual and from the devil (James 3:15).

God is pleased through the foolishness of the Gospel of Christ to save those who choose to believe (1 Corinthians 1:21). We belong to Christ and live by His Spirit, because the Spirit of God lives in us (Romans 8:9). The Spirit of Truth came into the world at Pentecost, and He guides us into all truth even now. The Spirit will not speak about Himself, but He speaks only what He hears from the Father, and He even tells us about what is yet to come (John 16:13). Our Heavenly Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him for salvation shall have eternal life. He will raise us all up at the last day to live with Him in the New Heaven and the New Earth for eternity (John 6:40; Revelation 21:1). Unfortunately, unbelievers condemn themselves to spend eternity in the torments of hell (John 3:18).

Prayer:

Father God, those who obey Your commands live in You, and You live in them. And this is how we know that You live in us: We know it by the Spirit, which You gave us (1 John 3:24; John 8:47). We are from You, and whoever knows You will listen to Your Gospel message and repent and be saved. Whoever is not from You will not listen to us and will hard-heartedly reject Your Truth and believe Satan’s lie instead (1 John 4:6). We offer a prayer right now for our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors to come to a saving knowledge of Your existence and to personally experience Your love for them through Jesus Christ.

Thought for the Day:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” - 1 Timothy 4:1

Filling the Void

Read: Read Galatians 2:20-21

“They are empty, void, destroyed, deserted and demolished. Their hearts melt with fear, their knees knock together in exhaustion, their bodies and faces have grown pale with anxiety.” – Nahum 2:10 (various translations)

A young woman shared her heart with me during a mentoring session by saying, “I have a void inside of me. I want my husband to fill that void, but he is just too selfish and self-centered.” She felt lonely and unfulfilled.

Single people often relate to me that they long for a deep connection with another human being. Yet, as we see by this woman's confession, even married couples feel lonely. Sometimes their spouse is actually sitting in the very same room with them, but they are not connecting, not filling one another with love and contentment. As wonderful as a mate can be, however, even as nurturing and attentive and caring as they might act, sometimes he/she just cannot fill the blank hole in our heart. 

Only Christ within us fills this empty void in our life. He is the only One who can love us from the inside out! No earthly relationship can ever come from within us (John 14:17). Christ within us is our hope of glory (Colossians 1: 27). Only our relationship with the Lord of love, living and dwelling inside of us, can bring us this level of intimacy and fulfillment, which we human beings so deeply desire. From within our spirit His comfort brings delight to our thoughts and emotions  (Psalm 94:19). Christ’s presence in us also affects our physical health, as well as our soul and spirit (Romans 8:11).

The still, small sanctuary within our spirit is the only place where we can find true empathy and solace from the God who loves us more than life itself. When we enter this "inner closet," we strip away all confusion and clutter from our soul. We empty ourselves of our selfish desires and ambitions and chaotic thoughts (Galatians 5:24). Then, we focus solely on the voice of our Beloved. We bask in the rays of His joy and peace, as we seek His direction for each moment of our day.

Then, when we continue in the life to which God called us, we have renewed power to meet the needs within our own life, as well as in the lives of those He sends our way. We can forgive, nurture, empathize, and minister to ourselves and others by the strength of God and the direction of His Holy Spirit. This is fulfilling indeed!

If we pray as He prayed in the Garden prior to His crucifixion, “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done”, that prayer will never fail. As we seek His kingdom, He always gives us what we need spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically.

If you are married and disillusioned or disappointed with your mate, this same prayer will change your relationship, because it will change your attitude and then your heart. If you are single and looking for a mate, then seeking first the will of God for your life is the only way to bring you to the place where you can meet the man/woman He has chosen for you. My husband and I met at Books-a-Million bookstore. God led us both there on the same night at the same time. What are the odds of that happening? With God, all things are possible.

I have heard it said that each partner in a relationship must be whole in Christ before they come together. Having a saving relationship with God is the first and foremost relationship we should cultivate in our own life. Then, only as we seek God’s will together, will we ever find the type of fulfillment we crave, both in our relationship with God and then with one another.  

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Your presence in us is our only hope of glory both in this world and the next. As we focus on this concept, You bring us the fulfillment and purpose we crave in this life. You avert our attention from ourselves and our perceived lack in body and soul to the nurturing fulfillment, which You provide in our lives. You give us "rest for our souls"; and in You we lack no good thing.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus satisfies our longing and He fills our hungry soul.