Called To Be Comforters

God's Holy Word tells us that we should rejoice in our trials because they are character builders in our lives.  The trials that we go through certainly do build character if we turn to the Lord for our strength during the trials.

Beyond the character building process, we gain more - much more.  We gain life experiences that we are able to share with others who find themselves going through similar trials.  God prepares us to be comforters for others in their times of need. 

Proclaimers of the Good News

Every Christian is called to preach the gospel. We all have that calling.  Yet the calling is very different for each of us.  For we are each called according the equipping of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Some of us will be called to be evangelists or missionaries.  Some of us will be called to be preachers or teachers.  Some of us will be called to support the spreading of the gospel through prayer, through service and through financial provision.  All of us will be called to be proclaimers of the Good News by the daily testimony of how we live our lives.

The calling to proclaim the gospel is a necessity that God lays on each of us.  The fullness of joy in our lives will be experienced by finding out how God is calling us and following His calling.

Finding Our Place with Jesus

When we reach heaven, having shed our earthly bodies, we will be fully submitted to Jesus.  We will have released every single remaining carnal desire that we carried on earth.

Jesus is the only man that ever achieved absolute abandonment to the Father while on earth.   He is looking for disciples that are willing to engage in the constant shedding of their carnal desires while still in their earthly bodies.  The Holy Spirit is provided to guide and strengthen each disciple in this process until the time when they find their place in heaven with their Master, Jesus Christ.    

The Influence of the Holy Spirit

Every logical consideration of receiving Jesus Christ as a personal Savior without the influence of the Holy Spirit will end up in a decision of "no" or "not now".  Without the influence of the Holy Spirit, man will follow the callings of his flesh which is never ready to be laid down in submission at the feet of Jesus.  

Praise God.   In His endless mercy, knowing our eternally fatal weakness, He gives us the Holy Spirit to provide us with the faith that we need to receive Jesus as Our Savior.

Love and Forgiveness

Jesus Christ is the essence of perfect love and forgiveness.  He is the standard to which He is calling all people.  

The principle of love and forgiveness is so important in God's kingdom that Jesus teaches us that we should go to reconcile our grievances with others before we come to His altar with our offerings.  If we are the offender, we should go and ask for forgiveness for our act and be willing to make retribution for the wrong.  If we are the offended, we should forgive the one that has wronged us.  In both cases, we should waive our own, perceived rights and obey the Lord's call to pour out His love that is in us to the other party. 

Perfectly Fitted Through Grace

Love God with your all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Jesus called these the two greatest commandments.  He taught that these are the things that we must do to inherit eternal life in heaven.  

But clearly these things are beyond human capability.  That which is demanded of us is impossible without supernatural intervention.  Thus, Our Heavenly Father through his endless grace and mercy provided the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to provide the supernatural assistance that we all need to fulfill our requirements for entry into heaven.

So it is with God's calling on our lives.  God does not ask us to do that which is possible for us naturally.   He asks us to do that which we are perfectly fitted for through His grace.

Clinging to the Cross

There is but one Cross, one atonement for our sins.  Our time on earth is meant as a reconciling of ourselves to the Cross.  Nothing that we do in our lives has value with the Lord unless it has been put in proper order.

The Heavenly Father must be the first consideration of every conscious moment in our lives.  If there is anything or any person that comes before the Father, He will ask us to give up our improper disposition.  This will be a continuous process in our lives until we have released our last wayward conviction and have only the Cross left to cling to. 

Praise God for His mercy.  Praise God for providing His Son to allow us to reconcile our lives with the Father.

Seeking God's Will for Each Season in Our Lives

Jesus lived His entire time on earth focused on doing the will of the Father.  He did not care if He preached to one or to ten thousand.  He was not interested in seeking the recognition of man for the good that He did.  He only sought to do the things that would please the Father.

Jesus faithfully followed God's plan for His life.   He was the obedient son of Joseph and Mary.  He was a skilled carpenter in His home town.  He was a great teacher.  He was a miracle worker.  He died on the Cross to be Our Savior.  In every season of His life, He did exactly what God called Him to do.

Jesus is our role model.  We should do as He did.  We should seek and be obedient to the will of the Father for each of the seasons in our lives.     

Our Relationship with Our Master

In every religion other than Christianity, the final goal is to have done enough in life to satisfy a god who rewards the deserving individual for all eternity.  For the non-Christian believer, their god is a task master.

For Christians, servitude to the Master is totally different.  The Master took care of everything required for the servant to receive his or her eternal reward.

As Christians, we serve a loving God who demands nothing but for us to have a living relationship with Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  Jesus stands before the Father on our behalf testifying to our worthiness to receive our eternal destiny in heaven.  His Holy Spirit dwells within us perfecting us for that glorious day.

Glorifying Our Heavenly Father

Christ Jesus dwelling in us is our blessed hope for glory and the revelation of God's creative purpose for our lives - to glorify Him.  As we submit to Christ's reign in our lives, we learn to overcome all the challenges and obstacles that the enemy sends our way to keep us from glorifying Our Heavenly Father.

We were all created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  Through Jesus' constant presence with us, we are led into our earthly calling.  We are provided the gifts of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These gifts prepare us to serve and glorify God here on earth and in the heaven for all eternity.

How Are We Recognized?

We are most comfortable in life when we are around people we like and when we are asked to do things that come easily to us.  In these times, our personality and our capabilities shine.  We are recognized by many for these things.

But these times do not necessarily reveal the One that lives within us.  Jesus is revealed in our lives when we exhibit unusual grace, mercy, gentleness, faithfulness, loving kindness, goodness, patience and self-control during the times in which we are being taxed by our situation.  At these times, we exhibit the fullness of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  We are recognized by Our Heavenly Father for these things.

He Never Leaves Us

During times of severe trial, we have several paths we can take.  One well worn path is the path of anger toward God which is accompanied by withdrawal from Him.  Another less traveled path is the path of joy in Lord with pressing into Him.  For most of us, we end up somewhere in the middle.  As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we will learn how to find the path of joy in all of our trials.

The well known poem, "Footprints in the Sand", adds further insight into our walk with the Lord.  The writer sets the stage of seeing two sets of foot prints in the sand when walking with Jesus.  Then during a severe trial she reports seeing only one set of footprints.  She thinks Jesus has left her.  But the Lord responds, "The times when you see only one set of footprints is when I am carrying you."  We may withdraw from the Lord during trials, but He never leaves us.

Our Indwelling Strength

Before we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at our salvation, Satan does not have to work at tempting us.  Our sins are sufficient to separate us from God.  We are already in line with Satan's plans to keep us from our eternal destiny with Our Lord.

Once we receive the living spirit of God within us, then Satan goes to work.  His temptations become relentless.  He is obsessed with destroying our lives.  Thank God that He promises to perfect His strength in our weakness when we are under attack.  He gives us the Holy Spirit to fulfill this promise.

Temptation Is Not Sin

All men and women on earth are tempted regularly.  Satan attempts to separate each of us from God through our sin.  Satan knows that God will never stop loving us, but we will draw away from Our Heavenly Father when we sin.  

We must understand that the temptation is never a sin.  Jesus, the only man without sin, was tempted by Satan.  Jesus overcame each temptation to keep Himself sinless.  Jesus was able to overcome the temptations through the power of the Word of God.  This is our weapon against Satan as well to defeat him in his relentless strategy to separate us from Our Lord.

In the Lap of the Father

What parent's heart doesn't melt when their child comes to them and just wants to be held or to rest in the comfort of the parent's lap.  At that point, the child is asking for nothing except to feel the love and comfort and strength of the parent.

This is exactly what Our Heavenly Father longs for.  He wants His children to come to Him to find the love, comfort and peace that can be found nowhere else.  

Our Sufficiency

There seems to be a thread of jealousy in each of us.  For some it is a monster that devours them.  For most of us, it is the slight murmur of discontent when someone else has something that we do not have - fame, success, recognition, money, etc.  The murmur will never go away until we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ.  He alone is our sufficiency.

Living a Simple Life

The world we live in today is very complex.  There is a lot of "stuff" that we have to deal with.  Much of the "stuff" is of our own doing as we continue to pile up toys and activities that end up overwhelming us.  Just to be sure we have plenty to divert our focus away from Our Savior, Satan makes his own contribution to the "stuff" that creates our spiritual muddle.  We stay constantly in stress trying to deal with the clutter in our lives.

Simplicity in our lives is the secret to seeing things clearly and living in serenity.  When we focus our lives on Jesus, our lives become much simpler.  Jesus is the essence of everything good and the absence of anything evil.   As our focus turns to Him, we are able to perceive God's will for our lives and to live our lives in simple balance. 

Our Joyful Destiny

There is no joy on earth that can compare with the joy we will experience when we finally have full union with Jesus Christ.  We will not experience the fullness of this relationship until we meet Our Savior in heaven.  At that glorious time, the joy of being fully united with Jesus will exceed any expectation that we might be able to imagine.  

In the meantime, it is possible to experience a portion of Our Savior's joy here on earth - a portion larger than anything this earth can offer us.  We can do so by relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the enemy's efforts to keep us from our joy filled destiny.

So It Is with Our Heavenly Father

God gave us parenthood so that we could better understand our relationship with Him.  We can use the experiences of our relationship with our children and our parents to help us when God is taking us by a way that we do not understand.

When God seems at a distance from us, we can call on the memories of the times that we stood away from our children so that they could learn on their own and grow from the experience.   Although our children did not realize it, we were always there for them if they needed us.  So it is with our Heavenly Father.

When God is calling us to be obedient is some area of our lives, we can call on the memories of the times that we were given specific instructions by our parents.  It was not easy for them.  They felt the pain of our anger as we were sure that their directives were way out of line with what was being done in the world of our friends.  Our parents loved us through our anger.  They knew that we were better off following their instruction than going our own way.  So it is with our Heavenly Father.

Our Comfort in Christ

As we draw in closer to the Lord, His light will reveal every iniquity in us and His fire will begin to burn away that which offends Him.  As we grow in our walk with Him, the time in the purification process will become more intense.

The Lord will test us to see how close we are willing to walk near Him.  The level of our comfort as we approach Him will be determined by our level of preparation to reach Him.  Unless we are fully submitted to the rule and reign of Jesus in our lives, we will not feel comfortable at all.

Mental and Spiritual Fitness

In today's workplace, our daily work environments are likely to be stress filled pits.  To make matters worse, many of us will experience a mental carryover into our personal lives.  Without a doubt, our workplaces can take a grueling toll on us.  Can we avoid it?

Changing jobs may be a solution in some cases.  In most cases, the new job is likely to bring as much or more stress.  So avoiding stress on the job is probably unavoidable for most of us.  Avoiding the affects of stress on the job is within the reach of all of us.  It will require that we build up our mental fitness.

We build our mental fitness by building our spiritual fitness.  Throughout the day we should include intermittent times of prayer and worship.  These times of prayer and worship can be a matter of seconds.  They will serve the purpose of directing our focus away from our problems and onto our solution - Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Not surprisingly, when we learn to rely on Our Lord for our strength during the day, He will become our greater strength when the work day is over.  As a result, we will find more time for deeper prayer and worship.  We will begin to take our mental and spiritual fitness to an all new level.

Success Measured by the Standards of His Kingdom

Satan loves to keep us tied up in activities that we take on without even looking for God's perspective. Under Satan's trickery, we take on tasks, jobs and even ministries that we know we are capable of handling and that we know will likely bring us success.  And often, we will be successful by the world's standards.

But God is looking for the opportunity to have His glory, and not our capabilities, reflected in the things that we do.  He is looking for a renewal of our minds so that we make choices by seeking His counsel through prayer, the reading of His Word and the advice of spirit-filled men and women.  Making choices in this transformed way will take us beyond our capabilities and our imagination.  Our accomplishments will then be for His glory and our success will be measured by the standards of His kingdom.

Guaranteed Victory

The guaranteed formula for our personal defeat is to cast ourselves against Satan, against sin or against our own flesh. Carnal man will lose this battle every time.

The guaranteed formula for personal victory is to cast all of our cares upon the Lord.  Through Him, we have victory in everything.  The process of sanctification, which will signify our ultimate victory, comes as a result of us giving up our own ability to compete and placing the battle in the hands of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Abundant Fount

The living water provided by Our Savior is available to all people as a constant flow.   The flow cannot stop nor will it ever stop.  The abundant fount of Jesus Christ is eternal.

This living water is also available to pass through us as vessels of Our Lord's love.  When we put our trust in Jesus and submit to His calling on our lives, the living water flows freely through us on to others.  On the other hand, when we turn to the world for our direction, we hinder the productive flow that the Lord intends for us to share. 

Rest assured.  The well of water never goes away.  The eternal reservoir is always ready to be tapped.  The Lord waits patiently to release His abundance through His children when they turn to Him in obedience.

Our Shining Light

As Christians, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, our demeanor is engaging to the observer.  Without even being aware of it, our smiles or kind words delivered somewhat casually can become  day changers, or even life changers, for the receivers of the acts of kindness.  

At times, our acts of kindness are delivered to the receiver purposely.  Often they are not.  They are simply representative of the gift of living water that is passing through us as obedient and submissive vessels. They are the reflection of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all peace, comfort and healing, that is shining through to those that need Him.  

Understanding the Nature of Our Blessed Hope

Before accepting Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we are not able to see the way, the truth and the life that is in Him.  Our sin nature blinds us to who He is and the salvation plan that He offers.  It is only by the aid of the Holy Spirit preparing our hearts that we are able to receive and submit to Our Lord, Jesus Christ.  

When we take the step of salvation, the Holy Spirit dwells within us to continue to be our helper.  The Holy Spirit will take us through the process of becoming disciples of Jesus.  We will learn to accept Our Lord's teachings and share them with others.  We will grow spiritually and develop an intimate relationship with Our Savior.  We will be prepared to meet Our Lord in heaven.  

When we get to heaven, we will finally fully understand the perfect nature and depth of character of Our Blessed Hope.  With our sin nature completely removed, all of His Glory will be revealed to us.   

Standards for Successful Selling

All successful companies have sales personnel that stand up to established standards for representing the company's goods and services.  The one standard that will be found in each of these companies is that the sales personnel must have a full understanding of their products and be able to present the products in an exemplary fashion.  

Other standards are likely to include codes for appearance and behavior and a requirement to always exhibit a passion for the company and the products in the marketplace.  And then, to insure that all the standards are met, each sales person will have a manager to train them, motivate them and monitor their performance.

As the representatives of the greatest product of all times, the Good News, our standards are basically the same.  We have several huge advantages in the marketplace.  1) There is no other product that delivers like ours.  2) Our manager is the infallible Holy Spirit that dwells within us. 3) Our reward program is the best.

A Healthy Vessel

We are mere vessels on this earth.  Whatever we receive from The Lord needs to be poured out into the world.  The healthy vessel has a constant stream flowing from it.  

To restrict or dam up the outflow from the vessel is to damage the vessel in some way.  The vessel that receives without allowing for an outpouring will fill to the point of being unable to receive more.  If the stream from the vessel stops completely, the vessel will become stagnant and will no longer be useful.

The Living Waters That Flow Through Us

By faith, we receive Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior.  When we receive Him and He dwells within us, we become vessels from which living waters flow from our lives out to others.  If we stay in submission to Our Lord and do not let our old selves interfere, the flow will be continuous.

The flow can manifest itself in many ways.  It can be a trickle or it can be a flood.  It can range from the smallest, unseen act of kindness to a massive outpouring on a grand stage.  But it can also be greatly restricted or stopped completely, if we begin to rely on ourselves rather than relying fully on the power within us.

The Manifestation of Holiness

Absolute holiness is the final product.  We will become absolutely holy when we go to meet the Lord in heaven.  Until that glorious day, we can expect to experience periods of holiness when our behavior is a reflection of the Holy One that lives within us.  On the other hand, we can be certain that we will suffer through times in which we will be led by our flesh.  Our behavior will not be holy.  We will move toward the darkness - the standard of our flesh.  

Fret not, the atoning blood of Jesus Christ puts us in perfect union with Our Heavenly Father, the seat of all holiness.  We can live in triumph knowing that we are holy.  We can manifest holiness here on earth.  For indeed, He is holy.