Will He or Won’t He?

On August 22, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 6: 7

And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely, to see if He healed on the Sabbath.

On one particular Sabbath Jesus was teaching in the temple. Present was a man with a withered hand. The amazing thing about this scripture to me is that the Pharisees and scribes were not watching to see if Jesus could heal the man with the withered hand. They were watching to see if Jesus would. They were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus.

Interestingly, this is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He had not even chosen the twelve apostles at this time. None the less, people were certain of His ability to heal. The fact that no one questioned His ability and willingness to heal is an absolute wonder to me. Verse 19 really speaks to this:

And all the multitude were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.

They expected Jesus to heal them. People flocked to Him in order to be healed and delivered. Here’s my question. Isn’t this the same Jesus that is our Lord and Savior? Isn’t He still alive today? Even Jesus’ enemies expected Him to heal the sick. Their only question was whether or not He would heal on the Sabbath. Well, we certainly don’t have a problem with Jesus healing on the Sabbath if He is going to heal at all, but do we expect Him to heal us? And what would happen if we really did start expecting Him to touch our lives with His power? What if we showed up to church expecting God to touch us? Has the power that was coming from Jesus expired? No, it is the same Holy Spirit. I think it is just that our believing has waned. Stir yourself up. Stir up your faith in the Jesus that does good works. Let us all invite his power back into our lives and our services. Let’s believe in Him again like the people of old and let us receive His goodness and pass it on to others.

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From Glory to Glory

On August 15, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Luke 6: 12

And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

If it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for me. That is a slogan we could all well adopt and frankly it is the way most of us approach situations now even if we don’t articulate it that way. Specifically, I am talking about two things that I glean from this passage.

First of all, note that Jesus went off by himself at times. He isolated himself from all distractions so that he could spend quality time with Dad. When all of the weight of the world is pressing on you, and you have about a hundred things on your “to do” list running through your mind, it is very difficult to have quality time with the Lord. Sometimes you simply need to get away to a quiet spot where there are fewer distractions. You need to turn off your telephones and televisions and let some peace enter your space. It is challenging to hear God speak to you when you have constant noise in your mind and your environment.

Secondly, Jesus found it necessary to pray all night long. Isn’t that something? You would think that the Son of God wouldn’t have to work so hard. So many people think that Jesus got his power and his holiness by birth, but they would be wrong. He got his humanity from his birth. His holiness he got from committing his time and effort to communing with the Almighty. He treated our Father with honor by dedicating time with Him. He needed that closeness. But then we all do. If we truly want to walk as Jesus walked; if we really want a high calling on our lives and deeply desire to do the work that the Lord has called us to, then we are going to have to get committed to spending time with our God and Father. We need the Word of God sown into our lives and we need prayer time. Every once in a while, it wouldn’t hurt any of us to take a whole day, or all night as Jesus did, to pray to the Father. Only when we finally dedicate ourselves to a devoted walk with the Father are we going to finally see His glory manifest in our lives.

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Unusual Kindness

On August 8, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 6: 35

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great; and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Jesus says a lot in this short passage. It is a summation of the previous several paragraphs. He is giving us a model for living. This is the way He and His Father interact with others. Jesus tells us that God is kind to ungrateful and evil men as a way of showing us that we, being made in the image of God, should behave in like manner.

Anyone can be kind to those who are kind to them, but the life of Jesus calls us to a higher plane of existence. Jesus wants us to be like Him. To do so, we must expect more of ourselves than the simple life that anyone can accomplish. We should aspire to the high life, and that is the life and likeness of Jesus.

We need to love even when it is uncomfortable. We must learn to not only forgive those who transgress against us but also to pray for them; and moreover to pray from a generous and kind heart. We should learn to give generously, especially when there is no hope of a return. It is not a gift if you are expecting something in return. It is an investment. God, on the other hand, gives even to those who hate Him. He would have given His son even if there was only one person on earth and that person hated Him with the full strength of his being. Our God is a loving God, and we are seeking to be just like Him. Therefore, we must give from our heart love, goodness and every good thing, expecting nothing in return but just to please the Father.

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Great Compassion

On August 1, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 49: 10

They will not hunger or thirst, neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; for He who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water.

There is another verse that says that God waits to have compassion on you (Isaiah 30: 18). He is just awaiting the opportunity to show His great grace to you. What prevents Him? We do. Isn’t that something? We don’t mean to, of course. But we often times don’t let him in. We don’t always give Him permission to work and move in our lives.

His desire is to show you great compassion. His compassion leads Him to show you His grace and His mercy. Of course, His grace covers every aspect of human existence. He longs to have compassion on you. But you have got to invite Him into those aspects of your life where you need grace and mercy. His Spirit is like living waters refreshing all the parched regions of your life. When you thirst, He is refreshing waters. If you hunger, He will fill you. You no longer have to suffer lack.

Here is what I want you to appreciate. His desire to show you His compassion is great. He wants to lead you to the springs of water. There is so much He wants to do for you. He is just awaiting your invitation. Open the doors that have been barred before Him. Throw yourself wide open and invite Him in. Ask Him to inhabit all of the rooms of your life. And lastly, give Him permission to pour Himself into you. He is waiting and longs to show you His great compassion.

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Deceiver

On July 25, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Revelation 12: 9

… Satan who deceives the whole world.

The facts are not always as they appear. Situations are not always as they appear. There is a deceiver present, and he is a master at his craft. He has been well able to fool Christians in all sorts of ways. That is one of the reasons that the Bible is so important to us. It is an anchor for our lives because it is truth and there is no deception in it.

One problem the body of Christ has suffered is that the devil has fooled us about all sorts of doctrine. We have been led astray by many winds of doctrine, some of which are so unimportant that they have been forgotten. None the less, they are deceptions that led people away from the truth. So, they fulfilled their function for the devil’s schemes. Others of his deceptions are clearly visible today. Two of the most damaging deceptions are that 1) there really is no devil; and 2) that the Bible is not the true Word of God. These two deceptions of Satan are leading people into all sorts of destruction daily. They have effectively limited the power of Christians so that many Christians have no more victory in their lives than those without God. This is a horrible shame.

Your actual Father is the Master of the Universe, the creator, the almighty and yet many of us are just about as powerful as a 3-volt battery. Christians get run over by the devil and they never even know what hit them. They certainly can’t fight back because they are deceived and powerless. This ought not be. I implore you to help me turn this around.

First, let us all get our heads out of the sand. Look around. The world is falling into chaos all around us. Evil runs amok in our towns and cities. It is hard to deny the power of the devil and the impact he is having in our society, yet many of us do. Let’s stop letting the devil get away with murder. We must first identify that it is he who is our enemy and then, secondly, we must give the Word of God an honored place in our lives. Not so that we can worship the book, but rather so that we will cherish its contents and allow it to work in our lives. We must have God’s help to overcome the schemes of the devil and the Word is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6: 17).

You are no longer deceived because you have heard the truth. Now we must all band together to fight the devastation caused by the devil and his horde. We must give the full measure of respect to the Word of God and a fully accept and appreciate that it is the weapon of our warfare.

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The Word is Love

On July 18, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 1: 1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This passage contains a revelation that we would do well to comprehend. We will have a much better understanding of the Kingdom of God if we do. You would really be well served to read the entire first chapter of John. It says that Jesus existed before the world was made and it was through Him that God made everything. Importantly, this chapter teaches us that Jesus is the Word. So, God made everything we see through the Word.

The Word is God. When you understand that you see that if you don’t obey the Word, you are not obeying God. Then one might ask, “How can you obey the Word if you don’t know the Word?” I believe that our society, our American brand of Christianity, has not given the Word of God its proper place of respect. Sometimes we don’t like what it says so we invent excuses to put it away from us. The truth is, though, once you understand the Word, you will find you don’t disagree with it so much. It is very often misunderstanding that has misled you. As you spend time with the Word, and hence with God, you will see love arising.

It is this prevalent fear that God is trying to take something away from people that drives them away from God and away from the Bible. When you, once and for all, understand that God is love, you will embrace God and all that He has to say. God is not judgment, anger or correction. He is love. He is trying to communicate His love to you. God is not threatening or scary. He is love, and He is love all of the time.

If God is love and the Word is God, then doesn’t it stand to reason that the Word is love? Jesus came into the earth as a human being to heal and save a broken and dying world. Love sent Him here. Love required it. Now as you dig into the Word of God you are digging into Him and to all deliverance. Let the Word of God heal you and set your feet on a high place. Dust off that book, not for God but for you.

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One and the Same

On July 11, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 John 4: 17

By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

This is an amazing passage of scripture! It is saying that we are as Jesus. This whole passage of scripture speaks of love. We discover that love abides in us because God abides in us and God is love. That love is then perfected in us and through that love we are just the same as Jesus.

Jesus didn’t walk and talk and act on this earth in his own capacity. He was a witness of the love of God. He lived in that love and with that love and He was in complete unity with the love of God. He walked in love on this earth because He walked in God, and God was with Him through and by that love. It was this love, God’s enduring compassion, that gave Jesus the power to heal the sick and raise the dead. Love called Him and compelled Him.

That same love abides with us and in us. That same love can work miracles through us just the same as it did through Jesus if we will allow it to mature in us. It is that very same love because it is the same God that works in each one of us. Therefore, we can walk just exactly as Jesus did because the same love is at work in us as was in Him. We have the same witness and that is that God first loved us. And now His love is at work in us. We didn’t do anything to earn this love, it is because God chose us.

Now here is your part. Each person must allow God’s to mature within them. Each person must allow love to have its perfect expression through them. It’s not that we really have to do much, but we do need to allow love to have its perfect work in us. We must let go. We must give the Lord permission to work in us and through us. We have to release our selfish aims and ego-based desires. Those are rooted in fear. Release the fear of not having what you want or what you think you need and allow God to raise you to your high, appointed place by His grace and His love.

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