Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Jesus Believed In Prayer

If Jesus needed it then I definitely need it.


Luke 4:42 When it was day, He went out and made His way to a deserted place. But the crowds were searching for Him. They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving them.

Luke 5:16  Yet He often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.

Luke 6:12  During those days He went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.

Luke 11:1-4  He was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say: Father, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. And do not bring us into temptation.”
 
Also: Luke 9:18, 28

The gospel written by Luke spends a lot of time on the subject of Jesus praying. Have you ever wondered why Jesus prayed?

Prayer is a relationship building exercise, if I spend time talking to God and take the time to listen to his reply then my relationship with God will be far better than if I neglect to spend time with him. Everybody knows that relationships are built on communication so why should it be any different with God? Try having a relationship with your wife without communication and you will have no relationship very quickly.

Jesus longed to keep up his relationship with God the Father, I am sure that he must have missed the direct connection of being in heaven together.

Jesus led by example and I should learn from him about the importance of prayer time.

Forgive me Lord for letting the chaos of the day get in the way of what matters. I want to pray all day every day. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Thursday, August 25, 2011

It's God's Decision To Heal

God knows more than I know, I will never understand everything he allows in my life.


Luke 5:12-15  While He was in one of the towns, a man was there who had a serious skin disease all over him. He saw Jesus, fell face-down, and begged Him:

“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

13 Reaching out His hand, He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the disease left him.

"Lord heal me right now!" That's the way we want it to be, we pray for instant relief so that we can get back to the highest level of comfort that we can possibly attain. That is part of our nature, we don't want to hurt, we don't like it, so we ask to be healed in hope that the suffering will be gone as soon as possible.

This man came to Jesus with a lot of respect, he asked Jesus to heal him but he did it in a non-demanding way knowing that Jesus might not do it, he acknowledged that Jesus had the power but he also knew that he couldn't force Jesus into action.

Too often we come to God with our list of goods and services that we want to have and we fail to remember that we are so small and we are so little in our thinking and we are talking to GOD. He wants to hear about our hurts and our needs but the truth is that he isn't always going to make us comfortable.

I must remember that suffering is going to happen until the Lord returns and makes all things new, that's when everything in creation will be restored to its glory that it had before sin entered the world. (Romans 8:18-30)

I thank you Lord for the hope that we have in you. Hope that looks beyond the pain and suffering of this world.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Obedience Doesn't Always Seem Logical

It didn't make sense to try again but Peter obeyed Jesus.


Luke 5:1-7  As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, He was standing by Lake Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.

3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing! But at Your word, I’ll let down the nets.”

6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” 9 For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they took, 10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people!”

11 Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed Him.

Jesus had been doing a lot of work in Capernaum for several days and he was drawing a large crowd. Today they were gathering around him very early, they must have missed some sleep in order to go find Jesus and listen to him teach and to watch the miracles.

It was so early that the fisherman were still cleaning up their nets after a long unsuccessful evening, there isn't any longer night for a fisherman than the night that he catches nothing, these guys were ready to go home and get some sleep.

Instead of going home to get some rest the future disciples get a fishing tip from Jesus, at this point they have been up all night and their nets are probably cleaned up and are ready to be put away, nevertheless Peter does what Jesus asked him to do. This time their nets are filled more than they have ever been with fish, they had to call their friends over to help them, what a payday this is going to be! No, they didn't get rich, instead of cashing in on the biggest load of fish that these guys have ever had, they leave it all behind and followed Jesus.

I need to be obedient to what God wants me to do. Sometimes we get frustrated when the whole world seems to be against us, we can loose our focus and decide to quit but if God wants us to do something then we need to be faithful and obey, chances are that we will see bigger results than we ever thought possible. (Jeremiah 33:3)

Thank you Lord for your call to follow you, help me to be faithful in obeying you.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Instructions For True Worshipers

God wants an intimate relationship with us.


John 4:21-26   Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming ” (who is called Christ ). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” 26 “I am He,” Jesus told her, “the One speaking to you.”

At church yesterday we celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of our Minister of Music and Worship at Idlewild Baptist Church. Consequently there was a lot of emphasis on worship in the pastors sermon last night and I thought of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman about worship.

During her discussion with Jesus, the Samaritan woman brought up the issue of the location of worship, that was a hot topic in the church in that day, the Jews and the Samaritans were at odds on this issue. Jesus quickly moved the conversation on from the topic of location and got down to what really mattered, after all worship should be a part of our lifestyle, something that happens all day everyday. Jesus told her instead of location we should focus on how to worship God and that it must be done in spirit and in truth.

Romans 8:14-16  All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,

The Spirit leads us close to God, we are drawn in like a child to his loving father, I am so glad that our worship isn't cold or impersonal like the many gods that man has created, this is a close intimate relationship.

Psalm 145:18  The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity

There is a prerequisite for this kind of intimate relationship, first the relationship has to be made right, I have to have Jesus as my Lord and Savior and I must live with integrity. Just like a disobedient child that has a difficult time snuggling up to their parent, so it is with us and God, he won't draw near to us if we are not maintaining our relationship by living in obedience to his word.

You are amazing God, it is more than I can comprehend, that you would want a close relationship with me. I pray that I will always live life worshiping you.

Friday, August 19, 2011

The Smartest Guy In The Room

Jesus didn't look down on the people he met.


Luke 4:14-22  Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity.

15 He was teaching in their synagogues, being acclaimed by everyone. 16 He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.

As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written:

18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” 22 They were all speaking well of Him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from His mouth, yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?

It seemed that everybody was liking Jesus at this early part of his ministry, people were coming from all around to see what this new teacher had to say, everybody wanted to see him for themselves.

Jesus stood up to read and somebody handed him the scroll that was from the prophet Isaiah, maybe somebody was out to test him and see if he could handle a scroll that most of us would have avoided. Jesus spoke and the people were responsive, they complimented him and were amazed at his gracious words.

Jesus was the smartest guy in that synagogue and yet he didn't bash anybody over the head with his superiority. Jesus spoke gracious words, that's a big deal because Jesus had every right to speak with judging words or condemning words, he could have used big, lofty intellectual words but Jesus chose gracious words.

Imagine if you were the smartest guy in the room, be it work or school, no matter where you went there wasn't anybody that could keep up. I am pretty sure that it would be difficult to keep my attitude in check, but the truth is that nobody would care how much I know, they only want to know how much I care.

I need to care about people the way that Jesus did, he had every right to tell us how it is or to point his finger and condemn us, but instead he chose to extend grace, he gave us the ultimate example of loving our enemies and demonstrated restraint in judging people. Jesus told us to live the same way. (Luke 6:27-42)

Thank you Lord for extending grace to us, for demonstrating grace to us rather than lording over us and showing us how right you are, your grace is truly amazing.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Fruit Doesn't Lie

It is difficult to hide smelly fruit, it will tell on you every time.


Luke 3:7-14  He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 9 Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10 “What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him. 11 He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”

12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He told them, “Don’t collect any more than what you have been authorized.”

14 Some soldiers also questioned him: “What should we do?”He said to them, “Don’t take money from anyone by force or false accusation; be satisfied with your wages.”

The word is out about a man that is preaching out in the wilderness, he has drawn quite a crowd, John the Baptist was holding a revival out in the desert, crowds people were confessing their sin and getting baptized.

John had a very practical message for the new converts, he told them that they would need to live a different lifestyle, there would need to be a change of behavior that would prove that their conversion experience was authentic. John gave them some practical "how-to" tips:
  • be generous (Luke 3:10-11)
  • be fair (Luke 3:12-13)
  • don't steal (Luke 3:14)
Take note that the correct process is new convert first and then new lifestyle second.

You should understand that all of us are producing fruit, it is just a matter of whether the fruit is good or not, Jesus  says we can't produce both. (Luke 6:41-45) we can try and cover up the truth about ourselves but when the produce is rotten than the whole world will figure it out.

I need to protect my heart so that the things that I say and do will be a testimony to the change that Jesus has made in my life. I need to live out Matthew 5:16 so that the world will see good fruit and be drawn closer to Jesus.

Thank you Lord for giving me a new life, I want to produce good fruit as a testimony of your goodness.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Focus On God

Take a look at my awesome God!


Psalm 77:13  God, Your way is holy. What god is great like God?

Psalm 19:1-6  The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.

Psalm 103:11-13  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Psalm 111:4  He has caused His wonderful works to be remembered. The LORD is gracious and compassionate.

Our mind is so limited when it comes to grasping who God is, the scriptures tell us a lot about him but our ability to comprehend who he is with our little brains is so limited.

Yesterday's post was about maintaining our relationship with God so that he will hear us when we pray, we talked about doing the right thing, today's scriptures talk about thinking the right thing, we have to keep the right attitude about who he is. King David knew about the characteristics of God, many of his Psalms tell us about them: he is holy, glorious, full of love, forgiveness and compassion.

God is focused on me, he proves it with his love and forgiveness for me, I need to focus on him and realize what a great ally he is.

It is amazing Lord, that you care so much about me and that you had me in mind when you came to save me from the death penalty. Help me to keep my eyes on you.

Friday, August 12, 2011

The Prayer That God Listens To

If your relationship is a wreck then God won't listen.


Isaiah 59:1-2 Indeed, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, and His ear is not too deaf to hear. But your iniquities have have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.

Psalm 66:16-20 Come and listen, all who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for me.

17 I cried out to Him with my mouth, and praise was on my tongue. 18 If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

19 However, God has listened; He has paid attention to the sound of my prayer. 20 May God be praised! He has not turned away my prayer or turned His faithful love from me.

Nobody likes to talk to somebody and have them ignore us, sometimes talking to God is like that, the cause of unanswered prayer a lot of the time is that God isn't going to be abused.

In an abusive relationship there aren't any winners, neither the victim or the perpetrator, everybody loses. God isn't willing to be in that kind of relationship with us, he refuses to mistreated, we cannot refuse to bow down to him as our Lord and then ask him to bow down to our wishes.

Even if my relationship with him is good I still need to be careful about my attitude in prayer. I need to be certain that I am treating God with the respect and reverence that he deserves. My relationship needs to be more than a place to go shopping, it needs to be about me giving to him, after all look at how much he has given to us already. 

Psalm 6:9 The Lord has heard my plea for help; the Lord accepts my prayer.

You are an awesome God, I thank you for caring about your creation and desiring to have a relationship with us.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

It's Not Fair

We love it when unfair works for our good.



Matthew 20:9-15  “When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius. 10 So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. 11 When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner: 12 ‘These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the burning heat!’

13 “He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? 14 Take what’s yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my business? Are you jealous because I’m generous?’

Habakkuk 3:17-18  Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! 

The day laborers that were hired at the beginning of the day were happy that they had work that day, a day laborer wakes up each morning and hopes that he will be able to make some money to pay his bills and feed his family. In his world they often say to each other "the early bird gets the worm."

Maybe the late guys slept in or maybe the farmer underestimated how much help he would need, either way the odds were against the late guys, there wasn't any guarantee that they would be hired and even if they did they probably wouldn't get much, or would they?

Our God is full of generosity (James 1:17) and grace, he says that all of us are equal in his eyes, he has given us something for nothing, he is the ultimate gift giver. He has given us so many gifts: life (James 4:14, Psalm 90:9-10 ), salvation to all of us with no regard for how good we are (Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9) The question we should ask is "why has God given me anything?" He has given me way more than I should have received from him, why God even gave me life is a mystery.

Psalm 103:10  He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses.

The only one that has the right to say that it's not fair is God but thankfully he doesn't seek to get revenge for all of the wrongs that we have committed against him, instead he is the ultimate example of generosity and grace, what right do I have to argue with him about what isn't fair?

Lord help me to look past insisting on justice, I should seek to be content despite my circumstances and rejoice in your goodness.

Monday, August 08, 2011

The Disciple Making Lifestyle

Jesus lived to make disciples.


Matthew 4:19  “Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!”

Matthew 28:19  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

There are a lot of distractions in the world but for the Christ follower that wants to be obedient, the number one focus should be on making disciples, it's what Jesus spent his time doing everyday. He started his ministry with the call to the first disciples and he ended his ministry by telling his disciples to go make some more disciples.

Jesus told his potential disciples up front what we was going to do with them but I don't think that they really understood and I am pretty sure that they didn't realize the process as it was going on. Jesus subtly brought them along one tiny step at a time, just the same as he has done with me, he knew that there would be a process and that I wouldn't suddenly become a mature, faithful follower right away.

Jesus spent three years in close daily contact with this group of men, showing them the new way of life and the new way of thinking, he did so through his teaching but most important he did it through his lifestyle. Disciples don't get made by themselves so I need to use my talents and abilities that the Lord has given to me to help encourage and strengthen somebody else's spiritual growth. I need to be intentional and make it a part of my lifestyle, I need to be about building relationships that will give me opportunities to share about my faith.

Help me Lord to step out and intentionally work at making disciples, I want to live so that my walk is consistent with my talk, so that you will get the glory.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Give God The Glory

Nature glorifies God, how about you?


Romans 11:36  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

Matthew 5:16  In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

1 Corinthians 10:31  Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory

Isaiah 43:7  Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory.

Psalm 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.

Did you ever have to put together a piece of furniture and it actually turned out the way it looked in the store? It makes you feel good to have created something from a pile of imitation wood and somebody may feel like giving you an "atta boy."

God's work in creation is so spectacular that it brings glory to himself,  just look at all of the splendor and beauty of everything that God made, all of it points us to how awesome he is. Just look at the complex bodies that we have and how delicate the different systems in them are and how well they work together. Take a look at nature, the planet, the sky and the pictures of the galaxies. (Psalm 19:1)

Another way that God is supposed to get the glory is through my good works, not that my good works could make God love me more or help me earn a place in heaven, but my good works are supposed to draw attention to God so that he gets the glory. (Matthew 5:16)

My spiritual gifts, natural abilities, my role as a dad and my good deeds should all put God in the spotlight. It is God that works in me to do anything good and it is God that first showed me what love is, as a result I need to give God the praise and glory for any good deed that I accomplish.

1 John 4:19  We love because He first loved us.

Your creation is is so awesome, I want to thank you Lord for your workmanship and thank you for showing me what love is, I pray that I will bring you glory through my good deeds and help point people to you.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

So You Want To Feel Significant?

This isn't all there is, God has eternity in mind for you.


John 3:16  “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 6: 40  For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

1 Peter 2:11  Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

Everybody wants to feel that they are significant and that their life really matters for something, most of us fill our lives with things that are meant to help give our lives meaning, we have devised an infinite number of ways to find purpose.

There is no better way to feel significant and loved than to go back and see what our creator said about this life. The road to finding real meaning for our lives begins with understanding that when we were created God had planned for us to live forever, he had eternity in mind for us, this life on earth is a temporary assignment for those of us that belong to him. It makes you wonder why we spend so much time dwelling on the things that are of this world when our stay here is so short.

Significance can be found only in realizing that the God of the universe that declared me guilty of sin also paid the debt off himself and then declared me innocent. How could I possibly be any more valuable than that?

What an awesome God you are! I have blown it so many times and you still choose to have me be with you forever. Thank you for your perfect love!

Monday, August 01, 2011

Are You Looking Good

God wants me to be beautiful.



Matthew 23:27-28  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

1 Samuel 16:7  Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.

Just like all of us, our God loves beauty, he created it and he loves it even more than we do. Take a look at all of the beauty that he created and it is very obvious that he loves it. The difference between us and our creator is that God perceives beauty in a totally different way.

We go around looking at the outward appearance of beauty, whether it is in the shape of our face or the price tag of our clothes, we want to be pleasing to the eyes but God has a totally different outlook on beauty.

Remember those Pharisees that Jesus looked at and how he saw past their outward efforts to look good? The people around them thought that these guys had it together but Jesus accused them of being whitewashed tombs, good looking on the outside but the inside was full of filth. Just look at the list of things that Jesus saw when he looked at them: unmerciful, proud, deceptive, liars, unjust, faithless, hypocrites, murderers.

Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

At the rate that I am going I will never be beautiful in the world's eyes. I need to seek to be beautiful in the Lord's eyes by having the fruit of the spirit permeate every part of my being so that my Father will be pleased with what he sees. I will be beautiful and the world will be attracted to me when I begin to look like my Lord.

I pray Lord that I will be a beautiful part of your creation, thank you for seeing me as your child, help me to be pleasing to you.