The Everlasting Power of God's Word

Deuteronomy 4:2

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.

Throughout the ages, God's Word has always been challenged to some degree.  But in today's world, God's Word is being challenged in totality.  It was gradual at first, but now God's detractors are bold and aggressive.  Their messages are widespread and unforgiving.  If you do not fall in line with the untruths that they sell, you are a bigot and a danger to society.

We are being told over and over again that the world's values are changing and that we all need to change with it.  In other words, God's Word is not meant to be everlasting.  It was only good for a different time and place. 

When given the opportunity to share the Good News, we may find ourselves trying to massage the message so that it is more palatable to the listener.  How dare we presume that our words are more pleasing to the lost than the Word of God?  When we are sharing God's Word with the others, we should speak the truth as it is written.  We are doing the lost a great disservice if we give them anything other than the full truth.  Our words are powerless when they are not grounded in the Word of God.  Yet when we speak under the authority of the Word of God, our words  hold the same truths and promises as the Word of God.  Our words offer hope and assurance for those who are in need.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your inerrant Word so that we may have knowledge of who You are, so that we may know how much You love us, so that we may know that You have created us in Your image and that we may know that You have a perfect plan for our lives here on earth and in Your eternal kingdom.  We exalt You for all the promises that You extend to us in Your Holy Word.  Lord, we pray that You open our minds to receive the truths in Your Word.  We pray that You equip us to share the perfect truth in Your Word with those that You have placed in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ. 

Doing More Than Jesus Asks

Philemon 1:21

Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

Paul wrote to Philemon asking him to forgive his slave, Onesimus, who had run away.  Paul also asked Philemon to accept Onesimus as a brother in Christ.  The law gave Philemon the right to deal with his runaway slave harshly.  Paul was asking Philemon to go beyond the law and respond with an act of brotherly love.

God's call on each of our lives is unique.  While He gives all of us His Holy Word and the Ten Commandments to follow, He sets aside specific directives for each of us to follow.  He places these callings on our heart.  He wants to see our obedience to Him.  It is for His glory.  It is for the gain of His kingdom here on earth and in heaven.  When we follow God's calling, it is certain that our obedience will provide favor in our lives beyond anything that we see or imagine.

But we should strive to go beyond the things that we are called to.  We should open our hearts and our minds to find ways to give joy to one another.  We should look around to see who among us is hurting, struggling or simply in need of a kind gesture.  Let us find ways to comfort one another and bring joy to one another.  We should exhaust every measure to bring hope to others.  But if in no other way, we should abound in prayer for everyone.  

If obedience to the law brings us unimagined favor, what will we receive for going beyond the law?  Just as Paul was confident in Philemon, Jesus is confident that His disciples will do even more than He asks.  He is waiting to richly reward those that love and serve the world.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for calling us to serve You.  We know that You will provide Your favor and protection when we follow your Holy Word and your Commandments and the callings that You place on our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You for all eternity.  Gracious Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit reveal to us the areas where You are calling us in obedience to serve you.  We ask for an overflowing of the love of Our Savior in our lives so that we will be founts of comfort, joy and hope to those that are in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Worthy Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Seeing Past Our Circumstances with Confidence

Jeremiah 1:8

"Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you", declares the LORD.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah to give him confidence.  He assured Jeremiah that he would not be asked to do anything for which the Lord had not equipped him.  The Lord also confirmed with Jeremiah that He would be protected from anything or anyone that tried to come against him.  This was all necessary to boost up Jeremiah.  Jeremiah was being asked to deliver messages that were not pleasant to the ears of his audience.  Jeremiah, one of God's greatest prophets, needed the divine inspiration of God to be able to carry out His assignment.

Our heavenly Father knows that often we fear what others will think about us.  God knows that we are weak and have a sense of inadequacy about carrying out the work that He calls us to do.  In His Word, He gives us the story of Jeremiah to strengthen and encourage us.  He wants us in a place where we fear no man.   

Surely, getting to this place where we fear no man is one of the most difficult lessons that we as believers ever learn.  It requires that we learn to trust completely in the Lord in all matters concerning our lives.  Even though the Lord has promised His perfect provision and protection in our lives, we still struggle to live in the fullness of what He has declared.  Sadly, it is a lesson that is probably not fully internalized even up to our death beds.  How much more joy would we have in life if we just simply put our complete trust in Him?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the protection and provision that You promise us.  We rejoice in Your unbreakable commitment to Your Word.  We praise You for allowing us to live in Your grace.  We pray, Lord, that You give us the courage to see past our circumstances and the wisdom to know that Your hand will be sufficient for all that we need.  We ask, Father, that Your Holy Spirit build us up and strengthen us so that we fear no man.  May we carry out the work that You give to us with the boldness and confidence of Your prophets.  We ask all these things in the name of the Strength of Our Lives, Jesus Christ.

The Winning Combination That Works Every Time

Romans 12:12

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Rejoice.  Endure.  Pray.  Now that is a winning combination.  Each of these disciplines undergirds the other.  The cumulative power gained by exercising these disciplines is even more valuable to followers of Jesus Christ when considering when they will be applied - during the times of trial and tribulation.

So how do these things work together.  First of all, Jesus taught that in the world we will have tribulation.  This is a given.  There is no getting around it and it is becoming obvious in these days that tribulation for Christians is being ramped up in the form of persecution unlike anything that we have ever seen in our lifetime.  But knowing this, we can rejoice as we have the hope given to us by the Son of God who has overcome the world.  This is so certain that Jesus commands us to be of good cheer.  And finally, because of the weakness of our flesh, the Lord God Almighty has provided access to His throne.  When we are in the middle of the battle, losing strength and clearly not of good cheer, Our Heavenly Father invites us into His presence to receive an overflowing of His grace which will strengthen us, encourage us and lift us up into the joyful expectancy that belongs to us as children of the living God.

May we rejoice in our hope.  May we persevere in our trials.  May we receive the fresh supplies of grace that we need to indeed be of good cheer at all times and under all circumstances.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the constant flow of Your grace into our lives.  Teach us, Father, to come to You throughout the day, not just at certain assigned times.  Show us how to come into Your presence without ceasing.  May we learn to humble ourselves before You endlessly as we come to You in prayer, bringing You the love, the honor and the praise that You alone deserve.  We pray that we will endure all things as we rely on the Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.  We rest on His promises.  We ask all these things in the precious, holy and mighty name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Rescued from the Dominion of Darkness

Colossians 1:13

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Sin is our nature.  It never leaves our flesh.  It keeps us in darkness from which there is no escape.  Without Jesus Christ in our lives, we are easy prey for Satan who stands ready to exploit the power of sin in our lives at a moment's notice.

But our merciful Heavenly Father made it part of His plan to give us the light and the power that we need to escape the darkness.  He provided a way for us to be bond servants to His Son and not to be slaves to Satan.  Through our relationship with His Crucified Son, we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God.  We receive true spiritual light as Christ is revealed to us, causing the prince of darkness to flee from us and the scales of darkness and blindness to fall from our eyes.

Our only refuge from sin is Jesus Christ.  By faith in Our Savior we are redeemed at the expense of His shed blood.  We are forgiven of our sins so that we may become objects of the Father's love and delight, just as His Son is.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a way for us to be freed from our sinful natures.  We thank You, Jesus, for giving us victory over sin through Your shed blood and death on the Cross.  We thank You, Holy Spirit, for standing with us and strengthening us to overcome the sin in our lives.  We pray that we will come to the humble place where we recognize that we are incapable of victory over sin without the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that one day we will stand in the light for all eternity and darkness will never again touch us.  All praise and glory be Yours, Father.  We ask all these things in the name of the Great Light, Jesus Christ.

Choosing to Manifest the Mercy of the Father

Matthew 7:2

For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

One of the biggest flaws in humanity is the desire to proclaim judgement on one another.  It is part of our human nature.  When you combine the desire to proclaim judgement on others with the fact that we are all so tragically flawed by sin, the opportunity for judging others is readily and abundantly available.  This has led us as a society to be cruelly judgmental of all the people that we find in our lives.

Jesus knew that we would struggle in this area.  Thus He provided us with a stern warning about judging others.  He wanted us to recognize that we are not qualified to judge, only He is.  Even more so, He wanted us to understand that in judging others we put ourselves in a position to pay an enormous price.

In addition to the potential of ruining other people's lives because of our judgmental nature, we also risk the following for ourselves:

• If we practice a critical spirit, we are likely to steal our own joy and peace.
• If we assume God's authority to judge, we place ourselves under greater scrutiny.
• If we include malice in our judgement, we pollute our own hearts.
• If we plant seeds of unforgiveness and condemnation, we become vulnerable to hatred.

Almighty God, through the sacrifice of His Son, chose to see us all as holy and blameless.  He gives us the freedom to choose to see others as He sees them.  He calls us to:

• Forgive others as we let Christ's peace rule in our hearts.
• Comfort others as we manifest the mercy of the Father.
• Honor others above ourselves as we imitate the humility of Our Savior.
• Encourage others as we share in the treasures of Jesus Christ.
• Love others as we let the perfect love of God flow through us.

Let us choose to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and not in the spirit of the world.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that our sins have been forgiven and washed away by the sacrificial blood of Your Son.  We praise You for the mercy that You have extended to us through Your Son.  We pray that You will shield us from the desire to judge others when You have kept judgment for Yourself.  May we not seek to find sin in the lives of others, but only seek to help others find the forgiveness that is in the name of Jesus.  May we all live our lives as vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask all these things in the name of the Judge of the Living and the Dead, Jesus Christ.

Overcoming the Sin in Our Lives is the Work of the Holy Spirit

Mark 14:34

And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”

Through Jesus, we receive the exchanged life of joy for the old life of sin and its miserable consequences.  Jesus paid a great price for our redemption.  He suffered physically, mentally and emotionally to go to the Cross for us.  He knew in advance the bodily torments, the agonizing death and the inconceivable burden of the weight of the sins of all men that He would suffer.  To secure our redemption, He chose the only path that fulfilled God's plan for our salvation.

As Jesus approached His time of great suffering, He was very sorrowful.  He was feeling the full agony of knowing that He would be taking on the burden of all sin.  His suffering was so great that He took Peter, James and John with Him to stand by Him in prayer as He prayed for strength in His most awful time of distress.  Three times He left the apostles to pray.  Each time He asked them to remain and watch.  Each time He found them asleep when He returned.  The apostles in their weakness were not able to provide Jesus with the support that He requested as He prepared to take on His Cross.  But even though the apostles left Jesus to take on the Cross alone, Jesus was given the strength that He needed by the Holy Spirit.

Ultimately, we must choose to take up the Cross of Jesus Christ.  We must die to sin.  If we choose the way of Jesus Christ, God's life lives in us and sin dies.  If we choose the way of sin, then God's life cannot live in us.  This is an impossible decision for us to make on our own.  Just like the apostles, our flesh is too weak.  But like Jesus, we have the power and the strength that we need to overcome sin because the Holy Spirit stands by us and prepares our hearts to take our victory over sin. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to die for our sins.  We praise the name of Jesus who chose to take all the sorrow and grief that He endured on our behalf.  We thank You for the Holy Spirit who guided us in choosing to accept Jesus as Our Savior, so that we might overcome the sin in our lives that separates us from You.  We pray for wisdom to always seek the strength and the counsel available to us through the Holy Spirit that stands on watch against sin with us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Gaining the Favor of God for Our Loved Ones

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once we received our salvation, we were called out of the darkness offered by the world.  We were placed into the living light of Jesus Christ.  We were called to become priests to spread His light to the world around us.  We were called to intercede on the behalf of others so that they may be taken out of the darkness into the light.

In Numbers, we read that the Lord instructed Moses to have the priests, Aaron and his sons, to bless the people in the following way:  "May the Lord bless you and protect you.  May the Lord smile upon you.  May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace."

These are the blessings that we should desire for those around us when we have accepted our calling into the royal priesthood.  As we abide in Jesus, these are the blessings that we should take before the Lord without stopping in intercession for those around us that are in need.  We should prayerfully seek nothing but the best of what God has to offer for all of the people in our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for taking us out of the darkness of the world and making us part of Your royal priesthood.  We praise the name of Jesus who guides us in our priestly duties.  May we learn to bless the people in our lives through our prayers and through our living testimony.  We ask all these things in the name of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.