Truth and Consequences

Read: Galatians 6:7-8

“The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” - Galatians 6:8

God created human beings to live a life of worship and to fellowship with Him (Matthew 28:20). He originally gave us Paradise to enjoy, and He wanted us to live there eternally. However, as willful humans, we reject God and we choose to live life according to what feels right to each individual heart. The problem with this tactic is that the human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. It is actually worse than we could ever even imagine (Jeremiah 17:9). Yet, we choose to allow this sinful heart to dictate what we do with our life.

Satan manipulated the idea of being like God to tempt Adam and Eve. Over the years, Satan continues using very successful substitutes for faith in Christ to draw people away from enjoying eternity with God. He deceives countless people into rejecting Christ, motivating them to embrace surrogate theories, philosophies, practices or cultures in some form or fashion. Most of these alternate viewpoints emphasize that each individual is empowered to achieve their own salvation. They place an accent on the individual’s need to work for salvation and they readily appeal to the humanistic mind. 

Some of the “religions” that Satan invented to appeal to mankind’s spiritual side and to detour them from filling the void in their life with Jesus Christ are: Spiritualism, Gnosticism, Polytheism, Pantheism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Theosophy, which is a combination of Pantheism and Gnosticism, Baha’i, Mormonism, Unitarian/Universalism and the other cults, as well as the New Age movement, which tries to incorporate all of these beliefs under one umbrella. There are also the Jewish and Islam religions, which draw many people into their fold, even if they were not born into them.

All of these spiritual movements head the list of Satan’s deviations. They entrap humanity and steer them away from the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ and the wisdom of God’s Word (Romans 8:6). There is a remnant, however, of authentic Christian Believers, which do not participate in these replacement practices that are pagan in origin, and which deny the deity of Christ and the unity of the Trinity as one God. We recognize Jesus as the maker of the heavens, the earth and everything that exists in them. God’s Biblical truth is our only guide for our faith and practice (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Peter 1:14-16).

After mankind’s fall in Paradise, and to insure our eternal security, God became man and lived among us. Even so, most people who knew Jesus hated Him, did not believe that He was God and ended up crucifying Him. Although, Jesus only lived on earth for a short time, He left us the Bible to promote the strength of our beliefs and to give power to our convictions. By His Spirit, He remains in us forever (Hebrews 13:5). The Spirit of God is eternal and is the power of the Almighty. He came in order to give us revelation, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, power, comfort and truth (Matthew 10:20; Genesis 1:2; 1 Corinthians 2:11; Job 33:4; Galatians 4:6; Hebrews 9:14; Ephesians 1:17; Isaiah 11:2; John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; Luke 1:35). No matter where we go, what we do or what situation we end up in, God is always right there with us (Psalm 139:8-10).

Prayer:

Father God, Your presence is available within every Believer. We fellowship with You and worship You with all of our spirit, body and soul – mind, will and emotions. Remind us to pray without ceasing as we keep a listening ear intent on hearing Your directions, as we listen to and follow after Your Spirit moment by moment throughout the day. We dedicate our every thought, word and deed to Your glory.

Thought for the Day:

Even in the most mundane of tasks, such as cleaning the house, going to work or carpooling the children, God’s Spirit helps us to live in such a way that we bring honor and glory to God all the days of our life.

From Turmoil to Transformation

Read: Leviticus 20:7-8

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13

 

When I started my quest for intimacy with God, I had so much turmoil within me and around me that I could not hear the Spirit of God. Clutter held my spirit and soul in bondage. I had to learn to regulate my thoughts and emotions, to journal the inner clutter until I could hear from God. I also had to totally surrender my spirit to the Spirit of God.

We receive the Holy Spirit into our lives when we receive Jesus as our Savior. Romans 8:9 makes it clear that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within us, then we are not God’s child! The peace and joy of the Holy Spirit sustains us through adversity and increases our natural and spiritual blessings. Isaiah 55:12 promises, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Have you ever really thought about what it means to have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling you? You have all of the power of the entire Godhead residing within your spirit. Every attribute that is in God the Father and Jesus the Son reside in us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is also our Comforter (John 14:26), our Guide (Galatians 5:16), and our ever-present Helper in time of need (Psalm 46:1). No matter what circumstance we face, the Holy Spirit within us has the power to meet it victoriously. However, a problem occurs when we do not take the time to listen to Him!  

As Christians, we have two sets of ears. First, we have our physical ears, which we can train to hear much more than the surface sounds in the immediate area around us. We can learn to hear the ticking of the clock in a crowded room, the chirping of a bird amidst the roar of a waterfall, the buzzing of a bee over the whir of a lawn mower. Train your physical ears to hear and enjoy every sound around you in God’s glorious world.

The most important ears we train, however, are our inner spiritual ears. The Gospels and Revelation are full of verses that speak mysteries from God, and are accompanied by a verse like the one in Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” In this verse, God is not referring to our physical ears. He is referring to our spiritual, inner ears.

Have you ever taken the time to listen to the Holy Spirit within you with your spiritual ears? Take a few moments right now and concentrate on the fact that the Holy Spirit lives within you. Go to a quiet place, fold your hands, close your eyes, and bow your head. Focus your entire physical and spiritual attention on the Holy Spirit within you. Listen with your inner spiritual ears. Go ahead! Sit quietly and listen. Do not stop before You hear from Him….give it some time.

Did you hear Him speak, or are your thoughts too cluttered with the natural cares of this world? I can totally relate, because mine were too. I also had to learn the discipline of having a place for everything I owned and keeping everything in its place. This cut down on the amount of clutter in and around me. If I did not have a place to put it, I did not buy it! It also made cleaning simple, since there was a shelf, drawer or closet to put everything that was out of place at the moment.

Make some time in your schedule to clean up the outer clutter in your life. Then make a habit of sitting quietly with your notebook. Begin writing out everything that comes to your mind. Keep writing until you are empty of all the peripheral clutter and negative thoughts and attitudes in your soul. Let the Holy Spirit transform your thoughts to those of Christ (Romans 12:2). Let His mind be in you (Philippians 2:5-11). Then, start listening to the Holy Spirit within you and doing His will for your life. You will never regret it.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, my life is so full of clutter…inner and outer clutter. Help me to simplify my life until every moment is filled only with Your will for me. Give me the strength to cut out all the sins in my life and to live a holy life as You command (1 Peter 1:16). Help me to walk away from shopaholic sprees and to buy only that which will fit in one of my closets, drawers or shelves. Then, help me to keep everything in its place. This way I can walk in inner and outer peace and more readily hear Your Spirit directing me throughout my day. 

Thought for the Day:

God’s presence in our life makes everything more intensely beautiful.

 

What a Friend

Read: John 10: 27-28

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

John proclaims that every known breakthrough that mankind makes comes from God (John 1:3). Before God created the heavens and the earth, He had a plan for each one of us (Ephesians 1:4). We did not then, nor do we now deserve His love; but He delights in spending time with us. He looks forward to our daily chats with Him in prayer and He wants us to listen to Him without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17). He promises us through the words of James 4:8, that if we draw close to Him, He will also, most definitely, draw close to us.

What greater privilege can anyone experience than to have the Lord of the Universe loving us enough to spend time with us throughout the day. Do we go around with an unmet need, simply because we fail to trust Him to meet it? Do we pack our lives too full of trivial pursuits and fail to spend time praising Him, loving Him, enjoying His presence and listening to Him? The biggest question of all, however, is do we take the time to thank Him for everything He provides for us – for the air we breathe, for food and shelter, for soap, for a broom, for a comb or brush, for family and friends who cherish us and build us up, for twinkling stars at night and the sun to warm us all day long?

We show our love back to God by praising and listening to Him all though the day, by worshipping Him with other Believers, by living out the evidence of His love in our lives, by telling others the Gospel story, by sharing our resources with those in need and simply by inviting people to visit us at our local church. Let’s simplify our lives in order to make more room for loving God, listening to Him, worshipping Him and following His will for every moment of our day.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I love that you invited us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5: 17). You are a friend that sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24), because You live inside of each and every one of us by Your Holy Spirit. I am amazed that though You are in me, you are also on Your throne in Heaven, interceding for us with the Father and protecting us from Satan’s wiles.

Thought for the Day:

Take some time to listen to God today. He is always within us and is only a prayer away.

If We Faint Not

Read: 1 Thessalonians 2:4-6

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9

Sharing the gospel of Christ with an unbeliever and watching the light dawn in their face is extremely satisfying. God’s truth transforms them as we witness real change in their life. This happens so infrequently, however, that over time we tend to get discouraged and frustrated. We take our eyes off of Jesus and look instead at the lack of our results as we minister for the Lord.

Noah preached for 120 years and only his wife, sons and daughters-in-law believed his message. The entire known world at that time scoffed at his faith and message. Yet, he did not give up. Noah served God with His life of obedience and God saved all of those who trusted in Him. Noah faithfully preached as he built the ark and watched as God sent animals two by two, just as He said He would.

Noah and his family even trusted God as they entered the ark. Their friends, neighbors and even some of their family refused to join them. Then, God shut the door and they were locked outside when the rains came. I know that Noah must have grieved over losing these precious people in his life. He had a whole year in the Ark to mourn over their demise.

God brings the harvest in His perfect timing. There is no need for us to struggle or strain, because the battle is the God's (2 Chronicles 20:15) and He is the Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9:38). We plow, we sow and we trust that our seed will eventually bear fruit. We may win one person who will eventually win a multitude, just because we took a moment to share a testimony of what God did in our life. When we arrive in Heaven, a host of Believers will welcome us, some of whom we never met before that day.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I look forward to standing in Your presence and seeing the full impact of my service to You. Therefore, use me now to share a smile, a hug, an understanding word, a listening ear and the word of my testimony in Your precious name.

Thought for the Day:

Always point people toward the One who loves them more than His own life.