The Best News Ever

Because of Jesus I have an incredible hope.

Romans 8:31-34 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one, for God himself has given us right standing with himself.

34 Who then will condemn us? No one, for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

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I’m the comeback kid, but it isn’t because of anything good that I did, I have God on my side! I can never be good enough but I don’t have to be! Think about it, God has the right to judge me and if He does then he will certainly find me guilty but instead He fixed our relationship so that I can call Him my Father.

Too many people don’t have this joyful outlook, even followers of Jesus don’t always remember how awesome their condition is with God’s love and favor upon their life. I learned from Pastor Tim Keller that the opposite of joy is hopelessness and if you have hope in God then you should always have joy.

Before I became God’s child I had one enemy and that was God. My enemy was good and wanted to help me even though I was at war with Him. Now that I have peace with God and he is no longer my enemy I have even more enemies than I had before and they are all evil.

My new enemies as a child of God are the world, the flesh and the devil. The world has a mindset that tries to sell you on the idea that you can find peace and joy somewhere else, your flesh is your old sin nature that wars against your good intentions and the devil is your accuser that judges without mercy.

All three of these enemies are very powerful and they are pretty good at stealing our peace and joy if we allow them to take our eyes off of the source of our hope. The fact that he is coming for me should dominate my thoughts and give me plenty of reason to be full of joy when my circumstances don’t look good.

Philippians 4:4-7 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again–rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. 6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Instead of losing our joy we need to remember to pray about everything. Paul told the Philippian church that their prayers should be followed up immediately with thanksgiving. We usually like to wait and see the results of our prayers before we decide to say thanks, that’s just how we are, we need to realize that what ever answer we get is ultimately for our good so we should thank him up front before we see the answer.

John 16:22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy

I have hope that the rest of the world is so desperately pursuing in all the wrong places. I need to share the hope that comes from the only Son of God, the only one that could take the punishment that I deserved, the only one that could secure me a home in heaven for eternity.

Only One God

It's impossible to worship when you are so busy complaining.

Exodus 15:1-3 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD: "I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; He has hurled both horse and rider into the sea. 2 The LORD is my strength and my song; He has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise Him--my father's God, and I will exalt Him! 3 The LORD is a warrior; Yahweh is His name!

Exodus 20:1-5 Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

3 “You must not have any other god but me. 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.

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After the miraculous escape from Egypt there was so much rejoicing and relief for what God did for His children. It is so obvious to everyone that God is the only one with power over the gods of Egypt and He is in love with His people. It also seems like the people are in love with Him as well.

One of the earliest praise and worship songs ever, was sung by Moses and all of the people joined in, it looks like there was 100% participation in worship on that day. Imagine seeing God's power displayed as it was during the plagues of Egypt and the power that they saw as they escaped the Egyptian army, worship was the only appropriate response. (Exodus 15:1-3)

But the worship service didn't last long enough, God's children found that the quickest way to end a worship service is to start complaining against God and the leaders that he has given, it is impossible to worship Him if you are busy complaining about Him. (Exodus 15:24, 16:2, 17:2)

When God's people grumble and complain about God the outcome will include complaining about each other. Right after the people complained about God they also started having disputes with each other that Moses would have to decide. There were so many disputes that it took up all of Moses time. (Exodus 18:13-16)

Meanwhile the complainers are making a vow to God to be obedient to all of the commands that God gave to them through Moses.  "We will do it," they promised (Exodus 19:8, 24:7) but just a little while later they are already going back on the number one rule to have only one God without any "god's." (Exodus 32:1)

It is too easy to make empty promises, we make them to each other, to ourselves and even to God. You might buy your empty promises and you may fool somebody else but God knows what is going on, promises and sacrifices wont do you any good if you are living in sin and you are not willing to repent and change your ways.

Just like God's children we have gained so much that it makes you wonder how we could be so unfaithful to the greatest friend that we could ever have. When God says that He alone is God and He wants me to live in that reality everyday then how dare I become a traitor and place my loyalty somewhere else.

Isaiah 45:22 Let all the world look to Me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other.

God gave out some basic guidelines to help us to know how to treat him, he proved to His people over and over that He alone is God and He alone has the right to rule over our lives. But if you are not thankful for what God has done then you will be just like those complainers in the wilderness.

Sure, they got to see some spectacular miracles but we have the full revelation of the Gospel that they didn't have, we have the big picture of the New Testament that they couldn't know about like we do. Yet we are so bored many times with grace even as we sing the song "Amazing Grace."

As Easter approaches I need to remember that I have a friend that is true to me and He will always treat me better than I could possibly treat Him. I need to be true to Him and do everything that I can to be pleasing to Him and serve Him above anything or anybody else.

Who Is Like Our God

Come let us remember what our King has done.

Come let us remember what our King has done
Let us remember His everlasting love
Let us remember He alone has overcome

Come let us remember He rules His enemies
Let us remember we share His victory
Let us remember we were slaves but now we’re free

We will sing through the night
Til the darkness breaks
We will rise up and shout
Til the heavens shake

Majestic holiness
Glory and righteousness
Who is like our God
Who is like our God

Unending strength displayed
Forever He will reign
Who is like our God
Who is like our God
No one

Come let us remember our God will never change
Let us remember His Kingdom will remain
Let us remember the power of His name

No one above Him, beside Him
There’s no one like our God

Praise The Lord

Psalms 113:1-9  Praise the LORD! Yes, give praise, O servants of the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD! Blessed be the name of the LORD now and forever.  3  Everywhere--from east to west--praise the name of the LORD. For the LORD is high above the nations; His glory is higher than the heavens.  Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, even the princes of His own people! He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Praise the LORD!

You Are The Treasure That I Seek

The world has a lot of cool treasure to distract you from what is priceless.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.

Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.

Psalm 29:2 Honor the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

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Have you ever dreamed of finding a treasure chest full of gold and jewelry? The world is full of stuff that we would like to get our hands on. It is so natural us to value new cars, fancy homes and a fat wallet, we can also see great value in the relationships that we have with our family and friends, but there is another treasure that is far above any of these.

It is good for us to examine our lives, take a look at ourselves and see how we are doing, take a quiz and ask yourself some important questions. While I listened to the Gaither Vocal Band sing the song "You Are My All In All" I thought of theses questions:

"What do I really value the most, is Jesus really the treasure that I am looking for?"

We have been told to love God, we know that he deserves to be loved to the highest level that a person can possibly love, but we let so much get in the way and rob us of our time with him or we take the time but we don't really love him fully.

Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind."

We can get lost in the empty pursuit of happiness, trying to get some more stuff, trying to have the perfect relationship, chasing down the stuff that the world says will make us happy. Finally when our day isn't going so well we decide to cry out to God to make it better. Is that true love?

I have to wonder how good of a job that we can do at loving God, since love comes from God and it is pure and without self seeking motives, how can we possibly love God adequately on this side of heaven? (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 1 John 4:7) While researching this blog post, I found this old hymn that I have never seen before, it speaks of the love that we should have for God that goes beyond any selfish motivation.

My God, I love Thee--not because I hope for heaven thereby; Nor yet because,if I love not I must for ever die. Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me Upon the Cross embrace; For me didst bear the nails and spear, And manifold disgrace, And griefs and torments numberless, And sweat of agony, Yea, death itself; and all for me Who was Thine enemy.

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, Should I not love Thee well? Not for the hope of winning heaven, Of of escaping hell; Not with the hope of gaining aught, Not seeking a reward; But as Thyself hast loved me, O ever-loving Lord! So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, And in Thy praise will sing; Solely because Thou art my God, And my eternal King.

I have to continue to work towards loving God as he deserves, making him my most treasured possession, as I live in God's love he will teach me how to do a better job of loving him. (1 John 4:16-17)

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.

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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.

Are You God's Friend?

Men of the Bible Series - If he had a Facebook account, would you be on God's friend list?

James 2:23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God

Isaiah 41:8  But you, Israel, are my servant. You're Jacob, my first choice, descendants of my good friend Abraham.

Proverbs 18:24  There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

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Have you ever thought about what it would take to be God's friend? I mean really his friend, not just a close acquaintance, but somebody that is really intimate? Usually we try to do nice things for the people that we want to gain as a friend but Abraham became God's friend completely out of the blue, there wasn't anything that Abraham had done to deserve the riches that God would bestow on him.

In fact Abraham blew it from time to time just like we do, yet in the long list of Bible saints he alone is spoken of as "the father of the faithful" and as "the friend of God" His obedience and his faith in the promises that were given to him was proven greater than his failures.

Just like our human friends that we try to please by being nice to them and doing things for them, God expects us to do good things for him. Not as a way of earning his favor but because we already have his favor, we cannot do anything to earn his love, our motivation to do good is because he has already loved us even when we were his enemies.

John 15:14  You are my friends if you do what I command

I want to show my love and appreciation for God by living his way. He is the creator of a better way of living and the best way that I can prove that I am a friend of God is by living everyday according to his commands.

Thank you Lord for making a way for me to become your friend, as the song says:

Who am I that You are mindful of me
That You hear me when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me
How You love me it's amazing 

I want to live each day faithful to your plan for my life.

You might like to read: Men of the Bible blog series.