Holy Living

Every day, God gives us the opportunity to stop sowing the destruction of sin into our garden of life. He provides new and nurturing experiences for us to use the pieces of our eternal weight of glory to honor Him.

We press on toward the goal of the high calling of God in our life (Philippians 3:14), until our journey ends. This is when He transforms us into the image of Christ as we breathe our last earthly breath and enter our celestial home in heaven (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Until then, we spend our days in holy living, worshipping our true and living King, and abiding according to Biblical and eternal priorities. This occurs regardless of our trials and circumstances.

We count everything as joy, even when we fall into various temptations, knowing that the trial of our faith produces patience; then patience has her perfect way with us, teaching us to "let go and let God" have His way in our life (James 1:4).

When we walk in the flesh, we tax our spiritual, emotional and mental energy, which effects our physical energy as well. We divide our energy between carnal and spiritual concerns.

God wants to hold the preeminent place in our life in order to insure our success as we enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:10). Then there will be no division in our soul and no stress on our physical well-being.

Happiness in this life requires a whole-hearted focus and commitment. We set our mind on the Kingdom of God and then He provides us with everything we need to experience fulfillment and success (Matthew 6:33).

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus gave His life at such a young age and died a cruel death in sacrifice upon the cross, so that I will never have to die the second death (Revelation 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8). Because of You, my eternity is in Heaven’s glories rather than in hell’s torment.

You awake in me the desire to serve You all the days of my life. I rejoice in You, my God and my Savior. I enter Your presence with the confidence of a child, and I dwell in Your Holy Place forever (Hebrews 10:19-20).

Thought for the Day:

If we have an idol in our life - something we focus on more than God; or are overly concerned with "me, myself and I", we will miss the high calling of God's will and suffer the loss of fulfillment which only He can provide.

Three Types of Death

I was organizing my vitamin supplements and filling my two week pill box with each vitamin and mineral that I take either morning or night or both. I started to include the Vitamin D that the doctor prescribed for me a few years ago due to the lack of sunlight that I get in my daily routine.

I have faithfully taken it ever since; but...God's Spirit told me not to put it in my box of supplements this time. I was incredulous and argued with the Spirit (yeah, I still do that occasionally!) I felt so strongly that I should not include this healthful vitamin that I had to quit arguing and agree to obey.

Then God's Spirit told me to look at the ingredients of the capsule. This particular brand had the vitamin D encased in corn oil, which is one substance that causes a leaky gut. I am healing from this malady and have to be extra careful with corn oil.

I was so amazed that God is so minute in His love and direction that He even guides our paths concerning the toxins we unknowingly include in our diet. God is so worthy of all of our praise for the way He guides our steps and cares about every issue of our life (Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Peter 5:7).

As I thanked Him for His direction, God focused my attention to the concept of life and death. I did some research and realized that there are three areas of death that every human experiences.

The first is that our spirit is dead in trespasses and sins until we choose to accept Christ's atoning work on Calvary's cross (Ephesians 2:1-5). This provides us with salvation and the regeneration of our spirit (John 3:16-18). We are actually Born Again and alive in Christ in our spirit.

The second area of death is our physical death at some point in time, which results in an eternity either in heaven or hell. We are free from sin and death by our belief in Christ, or we condemn our self to an eternity in hell by our unbelief (John 3:18).

The third area of death is our soul's death through sanctification, which releases us from slavery to sin and destruction (Romans 8:2). Our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions - is gradually changed over the course of our life to mirror Christ's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We slowly die to self and are more and more alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5; Galatians 2:20).

Prayer:

Father God, most people fear death. We have never experienced it before and we fear the unknown quality of death. We anticipate pain, and we worry about our eternal destination. Yet, in You there is no concern. Our last breath on earth is followed by our next breath in heaven. You delight in the death of Your Saints (Psalm 116:15).

As Solomon concluded, "The day of our death is better than the day of our birth." (Ecclesiastes 7:1) Authentic Born Again Believers look forward to joining You for eternity once we leave this world behind. Help us to win as many people to faith in Christ as will receive Him - with open hearts, eyes, ears and minds - before it is too late.

Thought for the Day:

God guides our steps throughout our life and welcomes us with open arms into eternity with Him; He delights over us with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17 

Abundant Living through Christ in Us

 

Life is a struggle…until we realize that we are struggling for no reason. With Christ dwelling within us, the only struggle we really have is to enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:11).

It is a struggle to enter His rest, because it is so hard for human beings to lay down our goals, plans and dreams and to stop relying on our human efforts and talents.

Our goal as authentic Believers is to totally surrender to God in every area of life. Dwelling in Christ allows us to succeed at living in serenity and fulfillment all of the time (John 17:23).

It is useless to dream of or to wish for a problem-free life. In this world, we are guaranteed to have problems (John 16:33). However, they are not our problems to handle. They are God's problem.

Christ in us has all the wisdom and resources needed to meet our problems and to solve them. He turns them into adventures and opportunities for us, and He works them out through us during each moment of our day.

We see life from a different perspective, through God's eyes; and even our trials take on a new meaning. We learn patience through the negative aspects of life as we also learn to praise God in them and for them.

We make our requests known to Him with gratitude in our heart for all He has already done for us. This builds our faith to know that He has our future worked out for us as well.

Allowing the Holy Spirit of God to control our spirit, body and soul – our mind, choices and emotions - gives us the privilege to live an abundant life in Christ.

With His strength and peace, we can face any trial with His praises on our lips and His joy in our hearts (Romans 8:6; Psalm 29:11). He provides all of our needs according to His glorious riches.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, all that You require from us is that we obey Your Spirit's direction, and that we allow You to work in and through us. You desire for us to take a step back and to view the issues of life through Your eyes. We hide under the shelter of Your wings and live with joy in our heart and a smile on our face, no matter how disturbing or challenging life becomes.

The more we allow You to live through us, the easier we walk in this realm of faith and Spirit. We center our mind and emotions on You and we walk in complete peace (Isaiah 26:3-4; John 14:27). You deal with the temporal aspects in our life, as we focus on the spiritual aspects moment by moment throughout the day (Galatians 5:15-25; Isaiah 41:10-13; Matthew 6:33).

Thought for the Day:

“The love of Christ controls us.” - 2 Corinthians 5:14

Behind the Masks

Who are you behind the mask you wear? Do you wear your feelings on your shoulder for other people to see who you really are? Do you try to act one way when you really feel another?

Or have you learned that it does not matter what other people think about you? Are you free from the tyranny of their opinions? Do you let your insides out?

Our fears and insecurities often define who we really are inside. We may have a strong spirit, but a very wounded soul. We appear strong, yet are feeble within.

When people reject us for our weaknesses, we feel like worthless damaged goods, which increases our fears and insecurities and compounds our problems.

Some people will actually disdain our inner self, many simply tolerate us and others dwell with us with understanding. The good news is that Jesus died for our inner self too.

His Spirit is transforming our inner self into a new creation through one stage of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). He slowly peals away the bandages we apply to our wounds.

He exposes the raw emotion and anxiety and puts the salve of God's unconditional love on each one of them. The only opinion of us, which really matters is God's.

This revelation frees us from having to hide behind masks. Jesus encourages us to let our insides out and to receive His healing for our past and His strength for our future.

Prayer:

Father God, teach us not to value anyone else's opinion of us, but to gain our identity through Christ in us. We do not need to rely on any person, place, thing or accomplishment to feel good about our self. It is our personal relationship with You that makes us a child of the King.

Help us to make room for Jesus on the throne of our life where He belongs. He is our best friend and He actually sticks closer to us than any human being ever will (Proverbs 18:24). Your love is ours both now and throughout eternity and flows over us like a waterfall.

Thought for the Day:

Tolerance is not acceptance; only Jesus fully accepts us just the way we are, and then perfects us by His Spirit as He fills us with His joy and peace.