Walk With God

If my wife agreed to go on a walk with me and then took off in a different direction, would you say we were walking together?

Amos 3:3 asks a similar question.

To walk together, you have to be in agreement. Our “walk” with Jesus is a metaphor for our way of life, but it’s also ture literally. There are many accounts of people walking with God; Adam & Eve, Noah, and Enoch. Jacob even wrestled God!

How is your walk with God? Are you in agreement? Or have you taken off in a different direction. If so, like the Matt Maher song says, “All you gotta do is turn around.”

God Bless!







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Speak, Lord

Samuel didn’t know what to do when the Lord first called to him. He didn’t even know it was the Lord’s voice.

His mentor Eli recognized what was happening. He told Samuel if the Lord called again to reply: “Your servant is listening.”

That sums up all that is required of us. Listen. Recognize the Lord in your life and listen to Him!

Sometimes God speaks and we don’t even hear it. I pray that His servants are listening and secondly, that they are ready and willing to obey!

May you recognize God’s presence today!







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All Things

I can do some things through Christ which strengthens me. I can do a couple of things through Christ which strengthens me. I can do a few things through Christ which strengthens me.

Nope, that’s not what the Holy Word of God says, is it? Instead it says: I can do ALL things through Christ which strengthens me. ALL THINGS! Not some, a couple, or a few.

All things.

That means everything. That means anything headed your way, good or bad – you can handle through Christ which gives you strength.

Now, does that mean you could run faster than a speeding bullet and jump over a building in a single bound? No… not unless God willed it and it would bring Him glory. Then, you bet you would. But, this refers more to like daily troubles.

As we face daily trials and tribulations, we know that Christ Jesus will strengthen us. He will be our strength when we have none. He will be our courage when ours has run dry. He will be there for us daily and supply us with ALL that we may require.

May you recognize God’s love with you today!







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Set Your Heart On Things Above #focusonGod #JesusSaves

To listen to a particular radio station you have to zero in on the right frequency. If you don’t, all you get is static.

Col. 3:1 tells us to set our hearts on Christ.

It’s all about focus.

What is your focus? Are you listening to all the radio stations at once and getting only static? Are you listening to voices that pull you below? Or have you set your focus to things above?

May you set your heart on Christ today and experience His wondrous blessings!

God Bless!







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Please and Thank You

How about we make year 2014, the year of Please and Thank You.

Please, God, help me.

Please, Lord, let me get closer to You. Please, Father, give me the Peace that passes all understanding!

Thank you, Lord, for all you’ve done for me.

Thank you, God, for the Cross and all that it stands for.

Thank you, Father, for loving me, for remembering me, and for saving me.

I think if we can make 2014 the year of please and thank you, we will all have a blessed year!

God bless!







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Let Go and Let God

Well, I've done everything I can do. Nothing left for me to do but pray, I guess.

Ever hear that? Ever say that? To be honest, I have. I've thought and/or said that very same thing myself many times.

Psalms 55:22 says "Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken."

My wife said something the other day that really struck a chord with me, "Let Go and Let God!" How simple. How true.

But, how difficult!

Let Go

and

Let GOD!

Give God the reigns of your life. He is a much better driver anyways. Letting go is hard for us humans, isn't it? We have to be in control of everything. It's almost as if we're admitting defeat if we let someone else take over. If someone is more qualified, then why not? And if anyone is more qualified, it's the LORD. Why is this such a struggle?! It's OK to let God in. It's OK to let Him be the deciding factor.

Allowing God full access to your life doesn't mean you will be without hardship. In fact, we are almost guaranteed it. The more the world senses you are a Child of The King, the more it will hate you. The more it will sniff you out. The more it will try to crush you. "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." John 15:18. "You will be hated because of me" Matt. 10:22. So, be ready.

Think of it this way, Jesus was the first to say Let go and let God! He prayed the hardest prayer: "Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." Luke 22:42

Submission to the Father is scary but it's the only thing that leads to ultimate peace and joy. John 16:33 says it all. Look it up. Memorize it. Live it.

Let go and let God! God Bless!

#LetGoAndLetGod #YHWH

Where You Belong

When Peter announced to the first believers that they needed to fill Judas’s empty position*, he used a phrase that always glares at me. I feel it piercing my heart every time I read it. It’s almost as if those words growl and claw. He prays “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go WHERE HE BELONGS” [emp. added].

To go where he belongs. Ouch. I think we all know where that is.

“To go where he belongs” is the NIV translation. The KJ and NAS say, “to go to his own place” and the MSG says, “to go his own way.”

We all belong somewhere. There is a place where we are going to go. You and I cannot be in two places at once. It is either going to be here or it is going to be there. Only God can be in multiple places. Not even the enemy can do that.

There is no spiritual fence-riding. If you think you are straddling that fence, think again. As Peter prayed, God knows EVERYONE’S heart. He knows which side your heart is really on. We fool others and we may even fool ourselves, but there is no fooling God.

Going where you belong can be a comforting thought or a frightening one.

For a Child of the King, where you belong is in the house of your Father. Where you belong is a place you have longingly envisioned a million times and it will be a million times more magnificent that you ever could dream.

For a child of the world, where you belong is in the house of your father. Where you belong is a place you never ever thought of and it will be a million times more horrifying than you could have ever envisioned.

Where will you belong?

God bless!

*Acts 1:15-26

They Never Stopped

If I told you that becoming a Christian would make your life harder, would you still become one? The message many are attracted to today is one of sunshine and butterflies. However, this does not align with scripture. The reality is: being a Christian makes your life more difficult.

Let’s look at Acts 5:17-42.

The Apostles are out and about proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s return. What do they get for it? Imprisoned. An angel lets them out and tells them to go right back to proclaiming the good news.

Most of us would have considered ourselves lucky to be out and then find a place to lay low for awhile, right? We probably would not stand outside the very same prison preaching! When the Sanhedrin sent for them, they got the message that the Apostles somehow got out of a locked cell and past the Roman guards and escaped… to outside the prison where they were doing what they got arrested for in the first place. I’m sure Gamaliel did a face-palm at that one.

They are arrested again (nicely this time). Long story short, they are flogged and told not to preach again.

So, what did the Apostles do? They rejoiced. They considered themselves honored to suffer in Christ’s Name… and then they went out and did it again. “Day after day” “They never stopped,” it says.

These were men heavily anointed in the Spirit. They knew Jesus of Nazareth

personally. If anyone should get special treatment, it would be these guys. But they didn’t, and we shouldn’t expect it either. Things will be tough. Life will seem unfair and darkness may overshadow us at times, but that should not deter us from rejoicing about Jesus and His Return.

If we suffer for His Namesake, it should be an honor, not a curse. We are probably not going to arrested. If so, I highly doubt we are flogged. We got it easy!

So let’s stop expecting life to be sunshine and butterflies all the time and realize that to be a Christian is to have a tough go at it. But that doesn’t mean we don’t Praise God for every blessing and every hardship that comes along.

God bless!







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To Love is To Fight

We've all heard the phrase, "I'm a Lover, not a Fighter." Well, the two are not exclusive. If you are a Lover, you have to Fight. You have to Fight Fear. You have to Fight the urge to be Selfish. You have to Fight against Greed, Sloth, and Envy. You have to Fight for what you Love.

It seems like Loving would be easier than Fighting, doesn't it? However, when you really think about it: Loving is way harder. Fighting doesn't require anything of itself. It doesn't demand Sacrifice or Self-Discipline. Fighting doesn't ask any questions. Fighting is survival mode. Fighting is indiscriminate. Get out of my way or pay. Fighting is way easier than Loving.

I Cor. 13:13 tells us the most important things. Faith. Hope. And Love. But the greatest of these is Love. 1 John 4:8 tells us that if you do not Love, you do not know God, because God is Love.

It's easy to Love what is easy to Love. It's easy to Love your wife or husband. It's easy to Love your kids. Try Loving someone who's wronged you. Try Loving someone who opposes you. Fighting them would be so much easier.

Many feel as if God does not Love them. Then answer me this: why did He send His Son? It was the only thing that could save what He Loved so much. The easier thing would've been to Fight us. Instead, He fought FOR us.

God bless!

The Nose On Your Face

I read somewhere that your brain can always see your nose, but it chooses to ignore it. There is a section in your field of vision that gets continously... deleted.

Sin can be like that. It's gets so constant, that we just sort of ignore it. We knows its there, we can see it... but we continously delete it from our sight.

Conversely, Good can be like that also. Far too often we ignore what's so plainly in front of us: good health, amazing riches, and unbelievable blessings. The fact that you are reading this right now means a coulple of things: 1. You can see. 2. You can read (14% of US Adults are illiterate). 3. You have access to the internet (119 million lack broadband internet). How about thanking God for any of those?

Ignoring something doesn't make it go away. If it's something bad - address it. Proverbs 3:6 says in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. If it's something good - give thanks for it. Psalms 95:2 says let us come before Him with thanksgiving. Either way, let's stop deleting things from our sight and acknowledge our Lord and Saviour!

It's as plain... as the nose on your face.

God Bless!

No Longer Orphans

The Human condition leaves many people feeling disconnected, isolated and forgotten. "Who cares about me? What does any of this mean?" A.W. Tozer called it "cosmic orphanage*."

This feeling couldn't be further from the truth. John 1:12 tells us that anyone who "even believes in His (Jesus) name" is now a Child of The King! God gives you that right!

To be a child is to join in the inheritance of the Father. We are co-heirs with Christ! (Romans 8:17) Not just conquerors, but MORE than conquerors! Romans 8:37)

So forget this disconnected, isolated and forgotten nonsense. You are no longer outside the Father's house in the cold, alone and naked. The Father welcomes you in. Take that human condition and kick it out the door. Claim your right! God bless!

Listen to: Hello, My Name Is - Matthew West

*Mornings with Tozer Daily Devotional

Sides of the Same Coin

A.W. Tozer said Faith and Prayer are two sides of the same coin. They are inseparable!* A faithful Christian prays. A prayful Christian has faith. I guess you can pray without faith and you can have faith and not pray, but that's not the most effective way to deflect the enemies arrows.

James tells us if we don't have something, it's because we haven't asked for it (4:3). We are also told to pray without stopping (1 Thes. 5:17). Brittany's Mom made a good point on this very subject the other day: the question isn't "Are you praying?" It is "Why have you stopped praying?"

According to Tozer, it doesn't take much wisdom to know our next move: Pray, pray, and pray!

God Bless!

*Mornings with Tozer, Daily Devotional Readings

God is...

Even I know if a=b and b=c, then a=c. My wife, the Mathlete, however informed me that it is called: the Transitive Property of Equality. I love Brittany and her math-brain! She was telling me how by applying I Cor. 13:4-8 to the Transitive Property, we can learn about the character of God.

Anyone who’s ever been to a wedding is familar with 1 Cor. 13:4-8. It is the whole “love is patient, love is kind” spiel that softens even the most stubborn of hearts. John tells us in1 John 4:8, that GOD IS LOVE. Therefore, we can insert God for “love” in 1 Cor. 13 and get a closer insight into who God is.

God is patient. God is kind. God does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. God does not dishonor others, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.

Take a minute in your busy schedule today to meditate on this and to thank God for all His astounding attributes! God bless!

*Thanks to Brittany for my math lesson for the day.

**Thanks to Jessica Sell for the pic.

Intercede

Anyone ever ask you to pray for them? Sounds… almost… peaceful, doesn’t it? In reality they are asking you to engage in warfare. Intercession is throwing yourself into the spiritual battle raging all around us (Eph. 6:12).
How do I pray for someone? Charles Stanley mentioned this once and it always stuck with me: Pray Eph. 1:17-19. This scripture is the perfect intercessory prayer to get you started.
Take comfort that you are not alone in this fight. As you intercede, Jesus intercedes for you (Heb. 7:25). As sons and daughters of God, we have a direct line to go boldly to the Throne (Heb. 4:16).
So, the next time someone asks you to pray for them, roll up your sleeves, arm yourself with Eph. 1 and get ready to fight! God bless!