When you spend time getting to know God you have to be honest with who you are. It isn’t because God’s doesn’t know the real you, it’s so that He can free you from trying to hide behind your old man, old nature, and your old sins. Come clean with God and you’ll find out just how much He really loves you.
Category Archives: Deep Thoughts
God Heals His Children When They’re Wounded.
Abiding Faith: To those in the body of Christ who are hurting behind the failure of highly respected and influential pastors, deacons, preachers, teachers or other believers – I don’t know you personally and I don’t know happened to cause this horrible situation and the huge pain in your heart. BUT the Lord has a Word for you if you will receive it.
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:6-8 (KJV)
Don’t give Satan a bigger foothold than he already has. Fill the cracks with the Word, fasting, and prayer. Deny the Devil any more conquest and refuse to become a willing victim by caving into the temptations of the flesh and becoming angry, bitter, resentful, vengeful, or distant.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39 (KJV)
Breaking Strongholds Requires Intentional Obedience.
Does Satan have a stronghold over you, your family and your relationships? James tells us to draw close to God and He will draw close to us; resist the Devil and he will flee. Satan gets his stronghold when people: fail to pray about all things; fail to study the Word of God; fail to practice God’s Word; refuse to follow the Holy Spirit; fail to love the brethren; try to satisfy the flesh rather than please the Holy Spirit.
If you want to be free from the stronghold of Satan you must reverse the curse by returning to God. Confess the sins you currently practice or have failed to acknowledge. Repent of your sin and obey God’s Word. Forgive those who’ve wronged you. Read Psalm 51, 73, 37, 32, & 27. Pray for guidance and strength. Daily put on the full armor of God. Get to a Bible teaching, Bible Living, Discipleship Training, Body of Christ loving Church.
If you begin with these things the Holy Spirit will give you peace and guide you to what He wants from you. Of course, you can ignore these instructions and be content to needlessly suffer the fiery darts of Satan.
The Choice is yours. Abundant Life or abundant strife.
Your Salvation Comes at a Cost You Cannot Pay.
There is no promise or service we can offer God that will be accepted by him or provoke his favor or forgiveness toward us. God’s forgiveness is his favor toward us. Service to God is not something we can barter for favor, it is an expression of faith because we’ve already received his forgiveness. There is no promise we can make that could attempt to be equal with the promise of eternal through Christ Jesus. Now we can focus our efforts on our relationship with him instead of believing we can impress him. THIS CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
Messengers Should be Assessed by on the Message They Deliver.
Be careful not to judge the message, ministry or the effectiveness of a person based on personality, style or other externals.
Luke 7:33-35 says, “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children.
Clearly, the religious leaders condemned any pattern of living and personal style that differed from theirs to disqualify the message they heard. Note there wasn’t anything immoral or sinful in about either man so their observations was merely a means to nullify their message.
James 2:1-4 says, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?”
Choosing to honor (or dishonor) one person over another based on their appearance, affluence or authority among the people of God is clearly considered the sin of “Respect of Persons”.
Isaiah 53:2 says, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.”
The prophet is letting us know that the purpose and message of Christ would stand apart of any kind personal or social charisma. The flesh is attracted to the things of the flesh and the natural senses, but the person and message of Christ are only understood by the spirit and the things of the spirit. The flesh should never be allowed to define or disregard spiritual things, and the Spirit should never rely on the flesh to comprehend spiritual things.
So the next time you hear or see something asserting or defining the spiritual things remember words from 1 John 4:1,
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
and Romans 8:5-8,
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. ”
Clearly, the believer needs to be able to “discern” whether or not a message is spiritually genuine or not. Instead of focusing on the flesh and unspiritual externals judge this: Is what I’m hearing consistent with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and Is what I’m seeing consistent with the character of Christ. Every other method is reckless and will only lead to disappointment and frustration.
Solid Foundation or Subjective Persepctive?
ABIDING FAITH: The reason there is so much stagnation in the lives of “professing” Christians and deadness in churches – We allow personal perspectives to drive belief. Each person has a different perspective which means there is no standard foundation for belief. Christ is not the sovereign head and Lord, he just a religious figurehead we call Lord. Meanwhile, I’ll do my thing and you do yours. At best this causes confusion and disarray. (If you live in North Dakota that means “a hot mess”) At worst this is anarchy and idolatry. The cure – Allow Christ to conform our foundational beliefs to His Word so our perspectives will be based on His Lordship not our own. Christ is the head of the Church and the Lord of believers. What he says goes. We seek him for his direction and will. We surrender our will and sacrifice our goals for his. This changes everything.
Purity, it’s more than you thought.
Abiding Faith: Purity – an attribute for which we receive great reward, but that comes at a cost. Purity comes at the expense of rejecting the immorality and impurity the world pushes at us through books, magazines, and television. It comes at the expense of guarding our eyes against pornography and guarding our hearts and minds against lust. It comes at the expense of removing ourselves from the immoral company and not pursuing entertainment that tempts and seduces us. But the reward for purity is an imperishable – eternal – incorruptible crown from the Lord. It’s greater than anything we may miss having or doing down here. Heaven, a pure place for people purified by the blood of Jesus. Lord, “… create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me …”!
Believing In Christ Means Living to be Pleasing to Christ.
Abiding Faith: Living to please self and other people only leads to displeasing God. If you have to ignore and/or disobey God to have friends, be successful, live the “good” life, etc, then you are worshiping and serving the creation instead of the creator. When you love God you’ll be attracted and drawn to the things that please him AND you will want to reject the things that displease him
Romans 1:21 – 25: 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things,[n] and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Though claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. 24 For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts[o] of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged God’s truth for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The solution simply stated is repent. The power behind the solution is to draw near to God and he will draw near to you. The practical application to the solution is to lay aside the things that weigh you down and the sin that gets us off course and run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto the Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.
The choice is yours. The final determination is God’s.
Discipleship and Steward are Linked Together for the Believer.
Abiding Faith: Jesus Christ said in order to be one of His disciples a man must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him. Once a man becomes a follower, Christ makes him a disciple. A disciple of Christ is one who is saved by and in submission to Christ’s Lordship and is a learner of His teaching. After Christ makes one a disciple He gives them a small amount of responsibility or stewardship. A steward is one who has been assigned a level of responsibility for the Master’s property – while being held accountable by the Master. Once a disciple has been proven to be a faithful and obedient steward over small things, Christ makes him a steward over more things. It is a great blessing for God to assign one of His disciples greater responsibility. It is blinding ignorance and biblical blasphemy to think that a person can be a steward of The Lord’s house, people, or ministry who is not and/or refuses to be a disciple of Christ. The bottom line – To be a good leader you must first be a good follower. To be a steward you must first be a disciple. YOU CAN’T BE A STEWARD IF YOU WON’T BE A DISCIPLE. YOU CAN’T LEAD IF YOU WON’T FOLLOW.
THE BELIEVER’S RESPONSE TO THE EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN THIS COUNTRY
Colossians 4:5-6 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
The horrific violence we’re witnessing in this country is provoking anger. The stories are diverse but the results are all too similar, people are being killed. An ‘us vs them’ polarization has taken hold of the country which is increasing social animosity. Lives are shattered, hearts are hardening, walls are growing, and doors are closing. Citizens are upset and demanding equity, justice, or even revenge.
But as believers Scripture tells us:
- Be slow to speak, swift to hear and slow to wrath.
- The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
- Not to allow our anger to lead us to commit sinful actions.
- Cast your cares upon Him for He cares for you.
- Not to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
- Vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Being a believer doesn’t mean we’ll solve, resolve, or stop all the wrongs in society. Nor will the justice system nullify the pain felt by the victims, their families, and the communities bloodied by these violent actions. However, as Kingdom citizens we are called to walk in the Spirit, in faith, and in wisdom. We are called to show what it looks like to live surrendered to Christ in the face of such violence. Our faith in God and our spiritual maturity demands we do this.
As believers, our response should be to model Christ before a fallen world. Grace and mercy should be the foundation of our advocacy and compassion. This is an excellent time to respond privately in prayer and publicly by sharing Gospel and promoting the Kingdom Agenda. Pray to the Lord about these troubled times we’re living in. Pray for survivors, their families, and the communities traumatized by this violence. Spread the Gospel of Christ, His atoning work on Calvary for the sin of all mankind. Pray for wisdom and guidance. Seek to respond in a Christ-like manner. Belief in Christ and repentance from the world’s system are the banners under which we should think, communicate, and live our lives in the evil times. The next person you minister to may prevent the next intended (or unintended) act of violence.
Now is the time to let our light shine so men will see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father.