Saturday, June 22, 2013

God's Incredible Power

God's power should not be scary to his friends.


God's Power

Ephesians 1:19-23  I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power  20  that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.   

21  Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else--not only in this world but also in the world to come.  22  God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church.  23  And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself.

God's power is incredible, the force that created everything out of nothing and gives life to man may seem like something that you should be afraid of but we don't have to live in fear that we will be hit with a bolt of lightning from the sky, God's incredible power is actually for our benefit.

Instead of being scared, God wants to have a loving relationship with his children, his power is our ally and is used for our benefit, instead of coming at us in judgment against us. God's power is manifest in our lives through his written word, his power to save us and redeem us from sin is through his blood, his power to change us is worked out through the Holy Spirit.

The unlimited power of God that raised Jesus and took him back to heaven to sit at God's throne is the power that we can count on in our lives. There was power exerted for the believer at our conversion. There will be power exerted in keeping us. There will be power in raising us up from the dead and power to take us up with Christ to heaven.

Since Jesus is at God's right hand as our advocate we know that we do not have to live in fear of God's judgement. That doesn't give me freedom to sin, God wants me to be so much more righteous and holy than what I will ever be here on earth, but my failures should not make me live in fear of him. Jesus is at the right hand of God for the benefit of the church which he loves so much that he died for her.
Is Jesus your friend?
John 15:12-17  This is My commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.  13  There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.  14  You are My friends if you do what I command.  15  I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in His slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me.  16  You didn't choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name.  17  This is My command: Love each other.

Romans 5:8-11  But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  9  And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's condemnation.  10  For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.  11  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
There isn't any way that you will find a better friend than the friendship that you can have with the one that gave you life and wants to give you life that will last for eternity. God has done everything necessary to take away the barriers that stood between him and man.

Thank you Lord for making it possible to have a relationship with you; your mercy and forgiveness toward man are priceless. I am so glad that your awesome power is being used to benefit me to shape me and make me more like you.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Delight In God's Word

Does "digging the word" make you really happy?



Jeremiah 15:16 When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.

Psalm 119:103 How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey.

Jeremiah was known for giving God's word to God's people without any change in their lives. That is why he went on to be known as the "weeping prophet," he spent a lot of time mourning the condition of God's children, but there was something that made him smile.

Jeremiah said that his heart's delight is in God's word, it was a delight to him to learn what God's word had to say, his lifestyle of obedience to God made him love to hear his word. It is easy to think that if God is speaking words directly to you so clearly that it would be easy to be delighted but these days we don't usually have direct contact. Most of the time we have to get into a really big book to hear what God has to say. The good news is that Bible study can be just as exciting.
The benefits of being in God's word.
Psalm 19:7-11 The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. 9 Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. 10 They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. 11 They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.
What an advantage it is to make time for "digging the word" each day, King David was undoubtedly a very busy man, but look at what he thought about the value of spending part of his day in God's word. David said that it revived his soul, gave him wisdom and it brought him joy. David enjoyed knowing God's promises and his instructions on how to live.

If you develop the habit of Bible study and ask God to speak to you through his word then it can easily become something that you look forward to doing each day. Just like looking forward to the next meal after doing without for several hours, we can get to the point where we long for the next time that we can spend in the word.

A wonderful tool for helping you develop the habit is to sign-up with 40 Days in the Word. They will help you learn how to study the Bible and apply it to your life.

LEARN HOW TO BE A "DOER" OF GOD'S WORD

40 Days in the Word is a teaching series and corresponding small group curriculum that shows you how to not just hear the Word, but to be a doer of the Word as well.

Related articles

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Trusting God When Life Is Hard

Sometimes we feel like God is late, uncooperative or inattentive.




Why?
The question that is never far away
But healing doesn't come from the explained
Jesus please don't let this go in vain
You're all I have, All that remains Breathe
Sometimes I feel it's all that I can do
Pain so deep that I can hardly move
Just keep my eyes completely fixed on You
Lord take hold and pull me through


Psalm 31:14-15 But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, “You are my God!” My future is in your hands.

Psalms 22:1-5 My God, my God, why have You abandoned me? Why are You so far away when I groan for help?  2  Every day I call to You, my God, but You do not answer. Every night You hear my voice, but I find no relief.  3  Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.  4  Our ancestors trusted in You, and You rescued them.  5  They cried out to You and were saved. They trusted in You and were never disgraced.

Those words can be scary, leaving your future completely in another persons hands isn't what we are inclined to do. We don't like to let go of the situation and allow somebody else to be in charge even if that person has proved to be faithful and loving.

God has given us proof about his character and we know that we can trust in his goodness and his protection but sometimes doubts creep in when we don't think that God behaved the way that we thought that he should. Our pain and our frustration will make us start asking questions like:

✔  “When will that happen?”
✔  “When is God going to do that?”
✔  “How much longer do I have to wait for that?”

With our limited knowledge and with our personal agenda we try and find answers to these questions and try to make sense of our situation. With our logic it seems that God has abandoned us and that there will be no relief or answers, yet we should realize that God hasn't changed, he is still loving and kind and has us in his sights.
Matthew 26:39  He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine."
It is okay to ask for deliverance or for a "plan b" but we should submit cheerfully to the will of God, confident that in all of these trials he is wiser than we are and he has plans that are bigger than ours and he isn't limited to our clock and calendar.

I have to remember that God is on time, he wants the best for me and he wants to be glorified in my life.

When God Is Inattentive


Your difficulties are not proof that God doesn't like you.

When God Doesn't Cooperate


You may want that thorn to go away but it may be something that God wants to use.

When God Is Late


There isn't anything that God can't do, so why isn't he doing something?

Saturday, June 08, 2013

Serving God Is Serious Business

Who will you serve? It's time to choose.



Joshua 24:14-15  "So fear the LORD and serve Him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD alone.  But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD."

We all like choices, just about nobody likes to be forced to do something, it helps us to be content if we are given some options to choose from. God gives his people the right to choose, we are never pushed into anything we don't want to do, sometimes we make a conscious decision for him and sometimes it is a choice made out of neglect, the result of not making a conscious decision.

God lets us decide who we will serve, will we serve him or will we live for ourselves? We look at the people of the Bible and see the big picture of their lives and it can be difficult to realize that following God was a daily decision, they had to choose to live for God moment by moment. Just like us, they had plenty of other options, there were plenty of gods to choose from.

Beware of neglect, we need to realize that if we do not make a conscious decision to serve God then we will probably realize someday that we are serving ourselves. That's because our old sin nature will naturally pull us away from God and what his will is for our lives.

Serving God can be an inconvenience, it can be costly and lonely but serving God is a requirement for those that want to please God. Serving God will require you to use your time and talents for him and yes it will require you to pull out your wallet and dig around and use your money for his work.
Malachi 3:17-18 “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
What an awesome decision that we have to make, and with great consequences, God says that there is a close relationship between serving him and being righteous. God is pleased with his people when they are obedient, he calls them his "special treasure," helping your neighbor, taking care of the sick, going on a mission trip, are just a few ways to please God, there are so many needs around us that we can meet.
"For Christians, service is not something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time. It is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came 'to serve' and 'to give'—and those two verbs should define your life on earth, too."
I cannot serve two masters, as it says in Matthew 6:24, I have to make a conscious decision to serve the Lord with my time, talents and treasure. I need to be about my Father's business.

Friday, June 07, 2013

Pray For Missions

Missions without prayer at best is miserable at worst it is impossible.



It is easy to underestimate the power of prayer to do God's work, we can easily begin to think that the success of our work depends on us doing the right things in the right way at the right time to the right people. Working for God with that kind of perspective will eventually lead to misery and our work will be almost impossible.

We need to realize the power of prayer in missions so that our work will not be hindered, prayer leads us to the power source, it helps us to remember who we are working for. God invites us to work for him but we cannot do it successfully on our own.

We are engaging in spiritual warfare, if you think that missions is about strategies, activities, programs and needs then you are going to be miserable, the devil is going to walk all over you. There is so much more beyond the physical realm.

As we go into the mission field we need to pray, when we see others going into the mission field we need to pray. There is a battle out there that needs to be fought and it cannot be done without the power of prayer.

Here are some strategic areas that we need to pray for:

Pray for Open Doors

Colossians 4:2-4  Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.  Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about His mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.  Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

Pray for Boldness in Witness

Ephesians 6:19  And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike.

Pray that God’s Word Will Spread

2 Thessalonians 3:1  Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.

Pray for Protection

2 Thessalonians 3:2  Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.

Pray for God’s Guidance

Colossians 1:9  So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Pray for Refreshment

Colossians 1:11  We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,

Thursday, June 06, 2013

Serving? Don't Be Shy!

God's people are encouraged to serve boldly.



Luke 1:74-75  We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear,  75  in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.

The story of the birth of John the Baptist is very familiar to most people that have heard the Christmas story but we are probably not so familiar with Zachariah's prophecies that immediately follow, one prophecy about his son John and the other prophecy about the coming Messiah. (Luke 1:67-80)

Zachariah's prophecy predicted that the Messiah is coming to rescue us from our enemies. We may have a lot of enemies but without the work of the Messiah my number one enemy is death, it is Satan's favorite tool, but we know that Jesus came to destroy the power of death in the lives of his children. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Zachariah's prophecy goes on to say the reason that we were saved from our enemies is so that we can serve God without fear. Unlike the priest that served with fear in the most holy part of the temple while the people were outside anxiously waiting to see if he would come out alive. We can serve God without fear because Satan's power has been defeated and because our relationship with God has been restored so that we are holy and righteous.

We have power from the Holy Spirit.

Acts 4:29-31 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
The early church was being threatened by various groups, the government wasn't friendly to them and the people that were still holding onto Judaism felt that the Christ followers were blasphemers and they felt that they deserved to be stoned.

With all of this against them trying to stop them you would think that the early church would be praying for safety but instead they are asking God to make them even bolder than they already were. Their boldness was the source of their trouble but instead of hunkering down they kept praying for more boldness.

Use your gifts boldly.

2 Timothy 1:6-8  This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.  So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, either, even though I'm in prison for Him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.
Our spiritual gifts need to be developed so that you will get better at using it. Paul tells us to take that little spark and "fan into flames" and make it grow into a powerful force so that we can go out boldly and serve God without fear or embarrassment even if it means suffering. Instead of the spirit of fear we have been given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.

God may want to use my spiritual gifts but he may want to use my weaknesses, the very thing that I feel like I cannot do may be the thing that he wants me to do, I need to be willing to be used by God and boldly allow him to use me in any way that he wants.

We can only serve one master, the choice is ours to make, will you serve yourself and miss the blessings of serving God? (John 12:25-26, 13:13-17)

God doesn't use dirty instruments, are you a clean instrument that he can use? (2 Timothy 2:20-21)

Will you love God and serve him with all your heart and soul or will you hold back? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Praying For Improvement

Praying for spiritual growth is a great way to bless your friends and neighbors.


Spiritual Growth

Ephesians 1:15-19  Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God's people everywhere,  16  I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly,  17  asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.   

18  I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called--His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance. 19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe Him.

The ultimate church planter was probably the Apostle Paul, his strategy for planting new churches is an example that is still valid today, God used Paul to get the message about Jesus out of Israel and spread it around the world.

Paul was happy to learn that his church plant had developed a strong faith but he didn't believe that they had arrived. Paul knew that there is always room for improvement and that the pagan culture around them could easily distort the truth of the gospel and lead this new church astray.

These new Christians needed to:

✔ Grow in their knowledge of God.
✔ Realize the hope that we have in Jesus.
✔ Learn about God's great power.
✔ Understand what God's will is.

As we become more mature in our faith and understanding of God the easier it will be to live in a manner that pleases him. The new disciples had to get beyond the basics and get to know God better, just having enough knowledge about God to understand the good news of Jesus work on the cross isn't enough, there needs to be a discipleship process.

Paul was concerned about planting churches but he didn't just plant them and take off down the road, he also worked to make disciples, often times he left his coworkers behind or he sent letters to help clarify doctrine but most importantly he prayed for them.

Maturity produces obedience.

Colossians 1:9-10  So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.  10  Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
What a great way to help the people that we know, to pray for their spiritual needs instead of concentrating on their physical needs, it is amazing that we are content to pray for the temporary instead of the eternal.

The greatest need that we have after our salvation is to become more like our Savior. To see the world through his eyes, to react to situations the way that he would, to put others before ourselves the way that he did.
 
Of course the right attitude is necessary when praying for somebody else to grow spiritually. If you are praying for them because you have judged them and decided that they "really" need improvement then you need to be careful. Don't forget the parable about "mister log eye."

No matter how faithful and spiritual we become we will never reach perfection and we will still need somebody that will go beyond praying for our temporary needs. What an awesome way to help our friends and neighbors. I need to pray for what really matters in the lives of the people all around me, those people that know the Lord already and for those that still need to know him.