Speaking Wisdom

On September 5, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 2: 6 -7

For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.

I asked the Lord for a bit of good news to send today, and He showed me this. I know this will be a word of great comfort to many who receive it today. God is right there in your situation with you, and He has wisdom, knowledge and understanding for you. Isn’t that great? What an encouragement. God does not intend for you to plod through this earth and through your life uniformed. He does not expect you to blunder about until you stumble over the answers you need. His idea is that He give you the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that you need. He has it stored up for you, for just this day.

Now, how are you to receive this wisdom from God? Well, you are probably not going to get your Word of wisdom from the TV. One thing you can do is what I did today. I asked God for what I wanted and then I opened my Bible and there it was. Now that is the number one way God is going to communicate with you. If you never open that book you are going to have a hard time.

God also speaks to us in our own internal ear. You have a thought; you hear a thought go through your head and realize that it was not your thought. That was God talking with you. That is how He does it. You have got to shut down the noise in your environment and your mind, though, to allow that communication. God will also speak to you through other people. Maybe the “Word of the Day” reaches you and it was just what you needed to hear. Perhaps your preacher teaches like he or she has been reading your mail. God uses people, especially those dedicated to Him, to give you exactly what you need.

First, realize that God has stored up wisdom for you. Know that it is His intent that you draw from His storehouse. Then talk with Him. Tell Him what you need and want. You are why He built and filled the storehouse in the first place. Lastly, listen. Listen to your pastors, teachers and preachers. Listen to what God may be saying to your own ear. And open your Bible. Be attentive to listening because God is going to supply your need.

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Lord, Lord

On August 29, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 6: 46

And why do you call Me “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?

Jesus is the most kind, most compassionate person any of us know, yet He is not afraid to tell it like it is. And this is pretty plain language. Jesus is not impressed with lip service. A person can bow and kowtow all he wants. He can say Jesus is his Lord until the cows come home, but none of that matters to Jesus. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. What are you doing?

In John 14: 21 Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.” In other words, show your fealty by obeying His commands. Do what He has said. Did He say love one another even as He has loved us? (John 13: 34). Hasn’t He said, give generously and judge not (Luke 6)? Then those words should guide our actions. Jesus is the Word (John 1). Are we doing what the Word says?

Now just in case Jesus had not made himself plain enough in Luke 6, listen to His words in Matthew 7: 21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus wants us to honor Him by doing what He says to do. He doesn’t want us just to tell Him how much we love Him, but rather to demonstrate it by doing what He says and by loving others. Being a deacon at the church doesn’t buy you into heaven. Following the Words of Jesus is what matters. Do you want to please Jesus? Do you want to be one of the people of whom Jesus says, “He/she loves me?” Then follow His words.  Obey His commands.

Action Thought: What one area can you improve in today?
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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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