Ready, Willing and Able

On June 10, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 14: 28 – 31

Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (emphasis added).

I want you to notice that Jesus did not hesitate but rather when Peter needed him, He moved immediately. Many of us have the idea that God waits until the eleventh hour to move on situations. I have been guilty of that myself. Now that I have seen this verse I must reevaluate my thoughts. Jesus did not wait to see if Peter could work it out for himself. He did not let him sink a bit in order to let Peter exercise his faith or grow. As soon as Peter cried out, Jesus saved him. Jesus did teach Peter that it was his lack of faith, his doubt, that caused him to begin to sink but He took hold of his hand first. Jesus works that same way with us today. He wants to teach us and he wants us to walk in faith but He always provides for our safety first. He will not throw you out in water over your head and expect you to walk on the water all by yourself. He will always have you by the hand. Not only that but also He will teach you all you need to know in order to succeed in your endeavors.
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Having Heard

On June 9, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 30: 21

Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

God means that you should hear his voice. He wants to talk with you. He also guides you with his voice. It seems that hearing from God has been relegated to a few people but that is not God’s intention. It is our tradition that has developed that idea. 

The big secret about hearing the voice of God, if you are not already, is that it takes practice. You begin to recognize the voice of God and it becomes easier and easier to hear him. One time I went on a trip and took a suit with me for the occasion. Then I had this idea occur to me to take an additional suit. I thought about it and said to myself, “But I don’t need two suits.” The thought persisted though so I packed the second one. As it turned out, I did end up needing two different suits. That was when I realized that it had been God telling me to grab the second suit. I learned a lot from that. First of all, I began to learn how God’s voice sounds in my ear. Sometimes it is just a thought that occurs to me from out of nowhere. I may be thinking of something totally different and a thought comes to me. Recently I left my house to go to an appointment. I got to the end of the street and the thought came to me that I had left the garage door open. I thought about that for a minute and in my own thinking I did not think that I had left the door open. The thought persisted though so I turned around and drove back to the house. Guess what? Sure enough the door was open. 

That is the way God communicates with us. In the example about the suit, it would not have been the end of the world if I had not listened to Him and packed only the one suit. Even with the garage door, I am sure that He would have protected my house in my absence but it sure is nice that He does tell me these things because my life is much better for all of the things He tells me. 

And that brings up the second lesson I learned about hearing from God. He often starts out teaching you to hear his voice by talking with you about small things. It did not take much faith for me to turn my car around and go check the garage door. He has built my faith in Him and in my hearing Him in these small things. Now when He says something big to me, I am better able to recognize that it is His voice speaking to me and I have more faith in hearing Him so that I do what I hear without arguing it away.

The thing you really have to do to start hearing God’s voice is to turn off some of the noise around you. If you are like I was you always have some noise machine on. In my case I had the TV or stereo on every minute of my life. There was no quiet time in my life for Him to speak in. The other thing that I had to do was to quiet my mind. My mind was so busy and so loud that there was little chance of me hearing Him. Quiet your mind. And lastly, I absolutely prayed about hearing the voice of God. I knew that other people heard God’s voice and I absolutely insisted on hearing also. If anyone is receiving a blessing from God, you are entitled to that same blessing because it is one and the same Jesus that has bought that blessing for each of us. Don’t let any of God’s blessings evade you.

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Goodness

On June 8, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 145: 9

The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.
This scripture is talking about us. We are the works of God’s hands, His handiwork. And He has good plans for us. He is merciful when we make mistakes and His plans for us are plans for good. Sometimes we think of God as vengeful and harsh but the Word of God says that He is a good God and that He is good to His kids. He is a loving father with plans for good things for you. He gives good gifts to His children and protects us from harm. All His ways are of kindness and goodness because He is love. His substance is love. So, all that He has is good. He wants to give more good to you than you have ever received before. Let us get a revelation of His goodness so that we allow him to pour all of His lovingkindness into our lives. You have to settle in your heart first, though, that God is a good God.

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Miracle Worker

On June 7, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 13: 58

And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
We think of Jesus as all powerful as well we should. The three years of his ministry were full of miracles, amazing miracles. And his miracles were not spotty as in one here and one there. He would go into a town and heal everyone that was brought to him. That’s big! But here in Matthew 13 he had gone home and he was not greeted as the great prophet. For some reason we think that people we know cannot be mightily used of God. Only those from other towns can be prophets of God. Well, Jesus encountered this phenomenon when he went home. Although the people there recognized the wisdom with which he taught, they still became offended at him just because they knew who he was. Because of their attitude, he could perform no miracles there. You see, we have a part to play in the performance of miracles. Jesus cannot create miracles that we cannot believe for. Time and time again Jesus told people that their faith had made them well. We have to work on our believers, which is the machinery of our hearts, so that when we need a miracle, we are already full of belief. After all, all things are possible to those believe.

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Melting Away

On June 6, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Colossians 3: 8 – 9

But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech from your mouth, do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices.
As we set our eyes on those things above, we must take care that we do not resurrect those things from our old self. But the good news is that as you keep your eyes on Jesus, those old things will feel foreign. They are inconsistent with your new self and soon they become uncomfortable. Then they will begin to melt away from you.

It is interesting how many of the above offenses are committed with our mouths. Getting our mouths under control is the bulk of the battle but with our eyes fixed on Jesus, he lends his strength to us so that in our weakness, we are strong. As we focus our attention on seeking Jesus and our Father, his power is made alive in us. Our worship and love of him draws us away from our old behaviors. They will eventually become as repugnant to us as they are to Him because we are drawing closer to Him every day and becoming more like Him.

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Seeking and Finding

On June 3, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Colossians 3: 1

If you then have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
I love the “seeking” scriptures because they remind me of the principle task which God has assigned me. I am reminded that my job is to seek Him and it is his job to take care of everything else. That is good news to me. Jesus promised us that if we seek, we will find (Matthew 7: 7). He also told us to seek those things above and God would add all the other things we need. We focus our eyes on Him and he takes care of our earthly worries. This pattern relieves us of worry and draws us closer to Him at the same time. That is a pretty good deal.

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Dead and Buried

On June 2, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Colossians 2: 12 – 13

[H]aving been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.

Because of and through your faith in Jesus, you have died, been buried and raised by the power that is at work in God for Jesus. For the power that raised Jesus from the dead, is alive and has renewed you too. If you have given your life to Jesus, then your old self has died and been buried. The life you now live is a new life in Christ Jesus. It is his life that we live because we are a part of Him. And for goodness’ sake, don’t go resurrecting that old man. He is dead and stinks. Leave him in the grave. Live a new life; one in Jesus. Live the life that Jesus bought for you. You are a new creature. The sin of the past has been buried and so have the habits of the past. Leave them with that old, dead flesh. All that was in the old person was only leading you to death and destruction. The new life that Jesus has purchased for you leads to life everlasting as well as victory here on this earth. Don’t let the devil trick you into considering your past and your old self. That person has died and all those problems died with him. Let your mind consider the glorious life that Jesus has given you, a life in Him and with Him. Let your mind stay on that so that your joy can be made full.

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