Living Outside the Comfortable Silent Path

Acts 24:16

So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

Paul spoke these words when he was giving an account of himself to his followers.  He was under attack from his enemies at the time.  He wanted his followers to know that he was under attack because he was leading a life that conflicted with how his attackers wanted to live their lives.  Paul may have been the first to warn us about living our lives according to political correctness and not according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

How many of us take the comfortable silent path of "tolerance" in order to avoid being accused of being a fervent believer in Jesus Christ, devoted to His service?  Unfortunately, this is exactly where the world wants us.  Much of what we see, hear and read that comes from the world is designed to desensitize us to evil and to move us away from the holy life style to which Jesus Christ calls us.  When we give in to what the world wants to hear, we give in to Satan.  We diminish our testimony that goes out to those who need to hear the truth.

It has become all too common to hear of the slaughter of Christians around the world.  In most of these heinous cases, the martyrs are asked to deny Christ.  Those who proclaim their loyalty to their Savior are subsequently beheaded or otherwise mercilessly killed.  What is remarkable is how many continue to proclaim their faith in the face of the slaughter.  Be certain that the faith of the first victim works to strengthen all the way to the last victim.  One after another they lift and strengthen each other. 

We will be held accountable for our testimony.  Are we strengthening one another through the expression of our faith?  What we stand for does make a difference.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to keep us mindful of the truths that You have revealed to us through the life of Your Son, Jesus, and through the writings in Your Holy Word.  Strengthen us, Lord, to stand up to the ridicule and hatred of the world.  In the flesh, we are destined to fall for the tricks of the enemy.  Teach us, Lord, to call on and to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to live in the spirit of the One who dwells within us.  May it be the passion of our hearts to please You and not the world.  We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

The Power of Our Spoken Words

Proverbs 15:4

The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

God spoke the world into existence.  Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick with His spoken words. There is great power in our words as well. Words cast out from our mouths have the power to build up and the power to crush.  We must be conscious of the power of every word that we speak.

"You will never amount to anything," lives on in the life of a child forever.  So does, "You are wonderfully made by the hand of God.  He has a special plan for your life."   We must be careful in choosing the words that we speak to our loved ones and to all the people that we encounter in life.  We truly have the power to plant life or death into those around us.

Satan will stay in our ears all day long, feeding us with destructive words to be spoken against those that we care for.  We must keep our armor up against the urgings to hurt others with our words.  We must continually ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be mindful of our words so that we comfort and build up those around us instead of crushing their spirits.

May we bring healing words to the wounded.  May we bring atoning words to those without Christ.  May we speak peace, encouragement and building up in the lives of all those that surround us. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of speaking.  We rejoice in praising You with our words and our songs.  We take comfort in coming to You with our words of solicitation.  We pray, Father, that You will fill our hearts with words that speak life into those around us.  We pray that You will shield us from the urgings of the enemy to speak words of conflict and destruction.  Build us up, Lord, so that we may build up others in Your Precious Name.  We ask all these things in the name of the Living Word, Jesus Christ.

The Lord is Our Provision

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

The Lord is our provider.  He provides everything.  He gave us life.  He sustains us.  He grants us eternal life through His Son, Jesus.  He endows us with the riches of His Kingdom for all eternity.

All we have to do is receive His Son as Our Savior and through our faith in His promises step out of the land in which we are living and into the land that God has set aside for us.  It will mean that we will look past those things that we think are unsurmountable. We will seek the promise and not get overwhelmed by the problem.  We will rely on God and not ourselves to be the source of our needs.

Once we turn our lives over to God and surrender to the reign of His Son in our lives, all of our needs will be met.  Provision may come from our own hands as God favors us with productive ideas and capabilities.   Provision may come from the hands of others or may even come from our enemies, if so directed by the Lord.  But rest assured, provision will come directly from the hand of God and it will be according to His perfect timing for our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the countless blessings that You shower us with each day.  From breath to breath, You sustain us.  We praise You and bless You for Your eyes never leave us.  You are our constant comfort and provision.  We pray that Your Holy Spirit will teach us, Lord, to rest in Your promises.  We ask that Your Holy Spirit strengthen us, Lord, so that we may step out of the world of the flesh into kingdom living.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Omniscient King, Jesus Christ.

Living Godly Lives Through the Provision of the One Who Called Us

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

God sets the vision for our lives and puts everything in place for us to fulfill the plan.  He provides His Holy Spirit to stand by us, to guide us and to instruct us in the person, the grace and the righteousness that is Jesus Christ.  For knowledge of Christ is preferable to all other knowledge.

We must, however, take all the small steps needed to move from one place to the next higher place that God has planned for us.  We must be obedient to the urgings of the Holy Spirit as we overcome the callings of our flesh.  We must allow the Holy Spirit to move us from a knowledge of Our Savior into a meaningful relationship with Him.

Along the way, Satan will challenge each and every step.  And once we really start making progress, Satan will turn his evil on those around us, especially those close to us.  Built up by our faith and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we will overcome.  As we surrender to the whispers of Our Helper, our tiny steps of obedience  will take us to our special calling and allow us to live godly lives through the One who has called us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to complete Your good work in our lives.  Thank You for the faith that You provide us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We pray that You will help us to build a relationship with Your Son and His Holy Spirit who has been sent to be Our Helper.  Help us to become tuned in to every tiny whisper from the Holy Spirit that reminds us of Your promises and guides us in faith on our journey of sanctification.  We ask all these things in the name of the Anointed One, Jesus Christ.

Everything Changes When the Holy Spirit Arrives

John 16:7

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

From time to time, you may hear someone say, "I sure wish that I had lived in the time of Jesus.  It would be easier to know and follow Him."  Jesus, Himself, revealed to the apostles that life with the Holy Spirit would be better than life with Him on earth. 

The lives of the apostles confirms His message.  The apostles were slow in understanding the teachings of Jesus.  They were even slower in adopting His power and His ways.  They scattered like the wind at His death.  In fact, they were still in hiding even after the Resurrection.  It was after the appearance of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that everything changed for the apostles.  Their knowledge of the teachings of Jesus became complete.  They were filled with the boldness to go out and proclaim the Good News, even under the threat of death.  And at once, they were able to exhibit the powers of casting out devils and healing the sick.

Everything that the apostles experienced after Pentecost is available to us today.  All we have to do is surrender to Our Savior and live in the spirit and not in the flesh.  The Holy Spirit is our supernatural resource.  The Holy Spirit is our comforter in troubles.  The Holy Spirit is our leader in all truth.  The Holy Spirit is the power behind all of our good works for the kingdom of God.  Let us surrender to the demonstration of His power in our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to be our Helper.   We thank You that we do not have to stand alone against the torments of our own flesh and the attacks of the enemy.  We come before You to surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  In accordance with Your promises, we pray that You will perfect Your strength in our weakness.  Through this process, may we come to a full understanding of who You are.  May we become living examples of our relationship with You.  May we serve the world around us through the gifts that You provide us through the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Risen King, Jesus Christ.

His Hands Are Upon Us

Jeremiah 18:4

And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

God has the power and the authority to raise up nations to do His good work.  He also may dispose of nations as He sees fit if they do not please Him.  He will always rule and reign perfectly according to His justice and His goodness.

Just as Almighty God rules over the nations, He rules over the lives of all men.  Through His Son, Jesus, He puts His hands on each of us to insure that we are molded uniquely in accordance with His plans for our lives.  Jesus is the Great Potter.  He keeps His hands on us, His clay, at all times.  He is in no hurry to form us according to His purposes.  He knows that He will take whatever time is necessary to get us to conform to the purposes that He has for our lives.  He will even break us, the clay, if it is necessary for Him to see us reach His chosen form.

As the clay, all we have to do is surrender to the hands of the potter on our lives.  From the point of surrender, we should have no concerns for the potter will form us perfectly.  We simply wait on the glory of our finishing.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have good and perfect plans for our lives. We thank You for Your patience as You mold us into the good and faithful servants that will stand before You one day in the image of Your Son, Jesus. We pray for the grace to surrender to the hands of Your Son on our lives.  We pray for the strength to endure through the shaping process.  May we become the perfect vessels of Your love that You created us to be.  We ask all these things in the name of the Great Potter, Jesus Christ.

Compassion Without Condemnation

Matthew 14:14

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Jesus has great compassion for all people.  During His time on earth, He poured out His compassion on all of the people whom He encountered.  He did not go out condemning them, even though many deserved His condemnation.  No matter what condition He found them in, He offered help.  He came to heal them all in mind, body and spirit.  In each case, He forgave them of their sins and offered them the hope of an eternal inheritance.

Today He does the very same thing for us.  He does not care what condition we are in now or what condition we come from.  His offer is always the same.  He pours our His loving kindness on us.  He offers us the opportunity to be healed in mind, body and spirit and to receive our eternal inheritance through His mercy and grace.  His offer is always accompanied by His perfect love and forgiveness.

In turn, He expects us to reflect His love and forgiveness in our lives by having compassion on the people that He places in our lives.  We should be alert to those around us that are burdened by afflictions, addictions and iniquities.  We should be ready to show mercy and compassion.  We should be ready to provide for their bodies and also for their souls.  We should be ready to serve them in the same manner that Jesus would have served them, compassionately without condemnation.  

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our every need and offering us the keys to Your kingdom through Your Son, Jesus.  We exalt the name of Jesus for the sacrifice He endured for us to be able to accept His loving kindness and mercy.  Remind us, Lord, that we are Jesus' ambassadors of compassion today.  May we be living vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness.  We pray that through Your grace we will serve the world around us compassionately without condemnation.  We ask all these things in the name of our eternally compassionate king, Jesus Christ.