Never Grow Up!

 

Do you ever get tired of adult responsibilities? In Christ, we never “grow up”. You are His child, totally dependent upon our Father God’s divine power for everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). This is not an ethereal metaphor, but a simple, sensible and sincere relationship. As God’s children, we fully realize in spirit, body and soul – our thoughts, choices and emotions – that only He can sustain our life. He calls us to share in His glory and virtue.

God does not remove our free will, but simply loves us so much that we joyfully submit to His desires. We soon realize that we are totally incapable of supplying what we truly want and need from life. In total surrender to His will and ways, we find complete fulfillment that transcends anything this world, the devil or the flesh have to offer. We shed our molting skin of flesh and walk in newness of life by God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25).

We can fully trust our Father God. We serve the God of nations, and there is no one like Him (Psalm 33:12; Jeremiah 10:6; 1 Samuel 2:2). He is greater than every one else (2 Chronicles 2:5). He is the God of angel armies (Malachi 2:16). He gives us rest all around us (2 Chronicles 20:30; Joshua 21:44; 2 Samuel 7:1). History proves the words of scripture, which diagram God’s hand in the lives of mankind throughout the ages. There is not one reason for us to distrust Him.

When we come into union with our Father God through salvation, His will becomes our will, His choices become our choices, and the objects of His love become the objects of our love. We exhibit His divine nature in us, as our old human nature diminishes, because it is dead and buried with Christ in God. Jesus Christ is our whole life (Colossians 3:3-4). This union through Christ inseparably binds us together in union with our Father and His.

Prayer:
Father God, we will rejoice in You, even if life throws at us one catastrophe after another (Habakkuk 3:17). You give Your angels charge over us, to protect us wherever we are and to keep us from harm (Psalm 91:11-12). If darkness dares to surround us, You come as our Light (Micah 7:8). Whenever we fall, You are right there to pick us up again (Psalm 37:24; Proverbs 24:16). No one can ever separate us from Your love (Romans 8:35). We praise You and give You all of the honor and glory due Your name (Psalm 29:2, 96:8).

Thought for the Day:
Our Father God may put us flat on our back, but it is only so that we will finally look up into His loving face.

 

 

Christ in Our Daily Life

 

The more we develop our awareness of our union with Christ within us, the more our interest in the affairs, pursuits and pleasures of this world diminish. We put on the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), and it infuses our thoughts, desires, motives and actions. We come to the place, like Christ did, that we speak and act only what we hear and see from our Heavenly Father (John 5:19). The fruit of the Spirit transforms our fleshly nature (Galatians 5:22-23). We enthusiastically submit our free will to the will of God for our life.

By faith, we trust the Will of God to be more perfectly intended for our good than our human Will could ever hope to provide for us. God knows the end from the beginning. His judgment is flawless. God wants the power of His Holy Spirit to pervade our body, spirit and soul – our mind, will and emotions. The only hindrance comes when we allow our humanity to overpower the Spirit of Christ within us. Our only hope of escaping the moral decay in the world, and the deceitfulness of Satan's temptations is by totally immersing our self in the divine nature of God though Christ within us.

As God’s children, our function, even in our secular employment, becomes a consecrated career under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Through us, Jesus answers the phone, types the letter, paints the house, repairs the machines, calculates the budget, delivers the supplies, nurses the patients, supervises the workforce, works on the assembly line, cooks the food, waits the tables or administrates the office through us. When we realize this, the stress of our job lifts off of our shoulders and rests squarely on Christ in us. We seek to do His will in our job because He is actually our employer.

God gave us our job and He funds our paychecks. We bless our employer with our conscientious work ethic, and stay open to the Spirit’s direction in order to help a hurting employee or to lead a hungry soul to Christ. All the while, our union with Christ brings us to the point of total serenity. We find complete peace within and then walk in His peace as we follow the leading of the Lord’s Spirit for each moment of our day. We no longer see problems in life, but view them as opportunities for God to show Himself strong on our behalf.

Our identity as a human being is dead. Our unique personality is still alive in Christ who wants to live His life through each one of us individually (Galatians 2:20). The way to walk out this union with Christ is to live, move and have our being only and fully in Him (Acts 17:28), by following the leading of His Holy Spirit moment by moment throughout our day. We are the light of the world, a city on a hill; therefore, do not hide your light (Matthew 5:14). Live in Christ and allow Him to love you and to love others through you. Allow Him to work through you to make a difference in your world.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, our unity with You comes because You dwell within us by Your Spirit. As we submit our life to You, You swallow up our humanity, and we unite as individual members of Your singular Body (1 Corinthians 12:12, 26). We develop in our unity in the faith, in our knowledge of who we are in You, and we mature in our understanding until we walk in the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). We clear our mind of earthly concerns and center our thoughts on Your goodness and grace. We decrease, so that You can increase within us and take over more and more of our life on a daily basis (John 3:30).

Thought for the Day:

God wants us to become like a little child and to trust Him implicitly. It is only then that we will enter the fullness of the Kingdom of God. – Matthew 18:3

 

Is God an Egotistical Maniac?

Atheists consider God an egotistical maniac. They abound with questions about topics that do not make sense to the human mind. They try to figure them out with humanistic reasoning. How can a God of love allow so much corruption and agony in the world? Why does He restrict us with so many rules and regulations? How can He demand sinless perfection from us, when He inflicts such desolation on those who sin against His multitude of commandments? Why does He think He deserves praise and worship from His people, when He allows such suffering and wickedness to happen to everyone?

The answer to these questions is easy. God asks nothing from us that He did not already do or experience Himself when He lived on this earth in human form as Jesus Christ. The God who created the universe also died from a cruel crucifixion, thinking only of us the whole time. God knew us before we were even conceived in our mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5). He hears us when we cry out to Him (Jeremiah 33:3). God provides for the flowers and birds and will do even more for us (Matthew 6: 25-34).

Jesus poured out His life on Calvary’s cross to exonerate us of our sin debt (1 John 1:9). If we repent of our sins and surrender our life to His control, He lives within us and helps us to bear our burdens (1 John 3:24; 1 Peter 5:7). He is so intimately familiar with everything about us, that He even knows the exact number of hairs on our head (Luke 12:7). All He asks of us is our faith and trust in His wisdom and ways (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Only children demand gratification of all of their desires, regardless of the consequences of these choices. Children need a loving Father to protect and care for them. That is why God cares about every part of our life and often limits us to protect us. Often our human priorities are in direct opposition to God’s. Only the immature think that a life without expectations and restrictions is preferable, because of the utter chaos this would bring. In truth, when we do receive what we clamor for, we usually end up dissatisfied before long, and then go off on another tangent soon afterward.

God provides so much for us, which we take for granted. He gave us the beauty of a universe full of galaxies, all delicately balanced to perfection for our safety and enjoyment. Every snowflake and human being is a unique creation, regardless of similarities in our composition. He created a multitude of tiny fibers in our ear to interpret the waves of sound we hear all around us. DNA is specific for each individual person. He provided our five senses to process and enjoy every pleasure available to us. Brain nerves and cells store every sight, sound, smell and touch we ever experience. The order of life is not a random act of exploding gas, but the competent design of our Father God (Genesis 1:1).

God’s goal for our life is eternal joy and peace, which starts the moment we accept His sacrifice for us and repent of our sins. God had our best interest at heart when He gave us His laws and commandments. He is the perfect commander of His army, because He came up through the ranks and file, experiencing every temptation we do and even more trials than we will ever face (Hebrews 4:15). He does not demean us as slaves, but gives us a free will to choose or to reject Him. He wants us to center our life on Him, because He created us for His companionship for eternity.

Prayer:

Father God, how could such a masterpiece as life in this world come from any source other than You? Thank You for knocking on the door of our life and giving us the opportunity to know You in a real and personal way. You desire our praise and adoration for all You do for us and who You are, in the same way we enjoy recognition for our actions and accomplishments. We so appreciate You listening to our every prayer and for working out all things, even the negative things in our life, for our ultimate good.

Thought for the Day:

An egotistical God would not have given man a free will, knowing in advance how much His ego would suffer from ours!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"But You Were Not Willing"

Read: Matthew 23: 37-39

“…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37

I was so discouraged today because I share the gospel of Christ with so many people all week long, and most of them turn a deaf ear. My heart is bruised and crushed with the weight of their refusal and my eyes weep tears that flow unchecked down my cheeks.

Eventually, I gave my burden to Jesus as I usually do. Then, as I waited quietly to see what He would tell me. He spoke to my heart, "Now you know how I felt when I wept over Jerusalem” (Matthew 23: 37-39).

My heart is lighter, because He shared His grief with me. However, my tears flow even more freely now as I type. Our King and Savior who died a horrendous, torturous death would not change the status of the world when His heart was broken, because He gave mankind...a free will.

What do we do with that free will? Refusing to live God’s way, we willfully usurp His authority in our life, taking pride in our rebellion. We work to stash away huge amounts of worldly goods; and then we live for the weekends in order to lustfully consume what we bought. We compromise God’s standards with our ungodly behavior. Sometimes, we even step on anyone who dares to stand in our way of reaching the goals we set for our life.

God makes it clear that He desires for us to live in His righteousness, to love His mercy, and to walk without pride before Him (Micah 6:8). As I sit here tonight, I have decided, this is the least that we can do for Him, in response for what He did for us.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You bore our sins in Your body on Calvary’s tree, so that we might die to sin and live in moral purity. Your wounds healed us and give us both the desire and the power to walk in Your will for each moment of our day (Philippians 2:13). Help us to lay down our carnal desires and to live righteously before you all the days of our lives.

Thought for the Day:

Are we willing to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God?

Knowledge Based in Truth

Read: 2 Timothy 4: 3-5

"Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God." - Proverbs 2:3-5 (NIV)

My cousin read a book, which opposed the Bible, but had no support or evidence in truth. She believed this fictional work, however, and completely turned away from her faith in Biblical truths. I hardly recognize her anymore. This caused me to ask, “What truths form my life view? Are they based on facts or supposition?”

Historians in Jesus’ day confirmed much of what the Bible relates to us about His life. Archeology and science constantly produce overwhelming evidence for the veracity of the Bible. Many people who set out to prove that the Bible is a book of fables are so overwhelmed by the amount of truth backing it’s claims, that they end up believing in God instead.

God’s Word gives us undeniable truths, such as the virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the Divine inspiration of the Bible, the sovereignty of God, the penalty of sin and the facts about our eternal destination. Christ was slain before the foundation of the world, and we continue to exist because of His grace. 

If we believe what the world’s experts tell us, we will focus on their fables and turn away from God’s Biblical truths. However, I love you enough to tell you that to believe anything contrary to Biblical truth is to believe a lie.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank You for the capacity to learn, the capability to search for truth and the free will to choose what we believe. Expose worldly fables for what they are, open the eyes of those who seek You with all of their heart, and help us to find our truth in your Word.

Thought for the Day:
Line up your worldview with God's Word, so it will last for eternity.