Peace, Sweet Peace

On April 28, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 20: 21

Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

Jesus appeared to his disciples after his crucifixion and ascension. First of all, how cool is that? I would like to have been there. Today’s verse comes from one of those visits. When he first appeared to them he said, “Peace be with you” (v. 19) and showed them the holes in his hands. The scripture says that then the disciples rejoiced. Well, I guess so. So then he said again, “Peace be with you” before he launched into what he wanted to say to them. 

One of Jesus’ many missions in coming to earth was to bring us peace. He is called the Prince of Peace because that is one of his anointings. Jesus spoke the same kind of message to his disciples as he was preparing them for his departure. He told them, “I go away and I will come to you … I go to the Father” (John 14: 28). He told them that his time was at an end but before he revealed the end he said to them, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14: 27). 

You see, Jesus is always, and I do mean always, sending us his peace. This is important to know because there is always peace where Jesus is. If you are entering a business deal and there is not peace, then you can bet Jesus isn’t in it. If you say something and peace flies from you, then you might want to rephrase or apologize. Even in decision making, you can follow peace and if you don’t have peace, wait until you do. There may well be a third option that you aren’t considering.

Also, when you are in difficult times, pursue peace. Let Jesus come in and minister peace to your heart. He is the author and thus the source of peace. If you are in trials or your heart is challenged then he is that peace that you need. Seek him and find peace.

Back to Top

Vigorous

On April 27, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 105: 37               King James

He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.

We saw from Deuteronomy 34: 7 yesterday that Moses died at age one hundred and twenty but that he was not feeble when he died. Today’s verse is about when God led His people out of Egypt. There were several million people in that great exodus but not one of them was feeble. Isn’t that amazing? There had to be people of all ages in that group yet every one of them was able to walk without stumbling.

Yesterday I wrote that we do not have to get old and feeble but let’s now look at a broader picture. Moses was eighty years old when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. He was strong and full of vigor. All of the people of Israel, regardless of their age were able bodied. They packed up their entire households and marched out into the desert. Honestly, how many of us today could walk in the desert day after day?

Here is the good news though, the power that gave their bodies strength is just as available to us as it was to them. In fact, we have a greater mediator and intercessor than they did because we have Jesus. Jesus has conquered death, hell and the grave but guess what, that is not all. He has conquered infirmity. Hallelujah! You’ve got to get this idea deep down into your bones. Let it sink in deep. When you do, you will find that it gives life to your body. You have a promise and a heritage of strong, able and vigorous strength for every sinew, bone and cell of your body. Focus your mind and attention on the truth. Every day remind yourself that none of the Lord’s people are weak or feeble. The more it sinks in, the more invigorated you will be. Tell yourself the truth, and the truth really will set you free.

Back to Top

Feeble or Able?

On April 26, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 34: 7

Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.

So, if Moses’ vigor was not abated, of what did he die? We have gotten this nutty idea that the cycle of life ends with getting old, getting sick and dying of that sickness. That is an incredibly skewed view of life. Moses died of having run out of years. God had already told mankind that He was limiting their life span, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’” (Genesis 3: 3). God told Moses his time was at hand and for him to make arrangements for his succession. So, at one hundred and twenty years of age, Moses simply transitioned to the next phase of his life. He left his mortal body and moved to heaven. He wasn’t sick, He wasn’t diseased. He was just done. He had finished his race.

This is the revelation we all need for our own health. We weren’t designed to get old, get sick and die. We were meant to live out the number of our years fulfilling our destiny just like Moses did. Then we simply change addresses. We lay down this body and move to eternity with Jesus.

There is just one more question which plagues me, if Moses could live to one hundred and twenty in the Old Testament, before Jesus, what should our life spans be?

Back to Top

Reboot Your Mainframe

On April 25, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Mark 6: 31

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.”
I am sure you have noticed that every once in a while your computer needs to be rebooted. Sometimes I use my laptop for several days without turning it off. I just put it to sleep and wake it up when it is time for it to work again. I am not letting it really shut down. Eventually it will complain and start failing in its tasks. So, I have to reboot it. I have to let it completely reset itself.

We need the same thing, a complete reboot. Many of us allow ourselves a little sleep but few hours of deep rest. We are like our laptops. We close our eyes like we close the laptop and sleep but we never really turn all of the machinery off and allow ourselves a deep rest. Jesus knew this was neither healthy nor ultimately productive.

One would think that if you worked with Jesus that there would be a great impetus to work day and night. Wouldn’t that have become even more pressing as the apostles learned that their time with Jesus was limited. More importantly, wouldn’t you expect Jesus to work day and night knowing that his time was short? There was so much to be done and such a short amount of time to accomplish it all. Why stop to rest? People are going to hell in a hand basket. Surely, of all the jobs any of us have Jesus’ was the most important ever. With all that weighing on their shoulders Jesus took himself and his apostles away to a quiet and lonely place to get some deep rest. They didn’t just go somewhere and take a power nap and then go right back to work, they actually “went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves” (v. 32).

We need to do the same thing. None of us has a job that is so important that we shouldn’t take some time away. We need that away time to reset and refresh. It is so hard to hear God even speaking to us when we are busy and harried. When you slow down a bit you find music and poetry and God’s thoughts rising up out of your spirit. There has to be time when you “shut down” everything and just commune with God in your spirit. God actually does want you to take a vacation but He does not want you to turn it into another busyness ritual. Slow down and be still. Just sit in the lounge chair and listen to the birds. You are going to be surprised how much Dad has to say to you and you will get the refreshing you need. Shut down your own system. Reboot your hardware and your software. You are going to feel better and even work much better.

Back to Top

Whiteboard – Version 2.0

On April 22, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 51: 10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

In the March 1, 2016 Word of the Day I wrote about our hearts being like a whiteboard that we can erase and write upon as we wish. If there are bad messages there, we can erase them. Then we can write the truth upon our hearts. I have an updated version of that image which I would like to share with you today.

While in the mountains, I had some quiet meditations. Once, I looked in my heart and thought about the whiteboard I saw God approach it and pick up a marker. “Well, this is pretty curious,” I thought and just settled in to watch what was going to happen. Father began to write on my board (my heart). Can you guess what the first thing He wrote was and in what color? You guessed right! He is always about love first and of course, it was written in red. I sat there and watched Him write the things He says about me.

Later it dawned on me what a powerful revelation this truly is. We can allow the Father to write on the whiteboard of our hearts. He always writes truth and encouragement. If we allow Him to write on our hearts, we will always be strengthened. So, get into a quiet state of mind, close your eyes and picture yourself in a comfortable, overstuffed armchair. See Dad walk up to the whiteboard and pick up a marker. Later make sure that you record all that he wrote and remind yourself of those statements frequently. In this way, you can have the heart and the beliefs about yourself that God has, He can create in you the perfect heart.

Back to Top

Glass half ______

On April 21, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 8: 29

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

So, is your glass half empty or half full? I find there are two very distinct classes of Christians. There are those who are fully cognizant of their faults and short comings and those whose eyes behold who they are in Christ.

Half empty glass Christians are very focused on their failures and even their sins. Half full glass Christians, while aware of their imperfection, choose to focus on the one who is perfect. Can we one day be all too aware of our faults and the next be fully persuaded about Christ’s victory in our life? Sure but I find that people tend to reside in one philosophy or the other.

I want to encourage you to see who you are in Christ and abandon the glass half empty approach to Christianity. The glass half empty people constantly look at their mistakes, their faults and their weaknesses. “Let the weak say, “I am strong!” (Joel 3: 10 Amplified). There are two problems with the theology of constantly looking at our weakness. First, it is not Biblical. Though we know we are weak, though we know we are flawed we are supposed to declare “I am strong” because our strength is in our Lord.

The other flaw in this approach is that it is self-centered instead of being Christ centered. We are supposed to have our eyes on him, not on ourselves. We have to get us off of our minds and put our thoughts on Jesus and the glory of what he has done for us. The scripture says that we are the righteousness of God in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5: 21). Why are we calling ourselves wretched and sinful when God calls us His righteousness?

Sometimes this theology even goes so far as to harp on our sins and sinful natures. Well, isn’t that why God sent a savior? We were lost with no power to save ourselves but when Jesus went to the cross he took our sins with him and nailed them to that tree. Jesus took the sin of the world and crucified it. Of course that doesn’t mean that we never fail but it does mean that we have been redeemed from the curse of sin, we have been restored to our right place with God and our sins have been washed by the blood. If we are saved, and we surely confess that we are, then our sin debt has been paid. We have been redeemed. We are no longer sinners but rather saints. To call ourselves sinners when Christ paid the price of our sin with his life is to throw his sacrifice in his face. It is like saying, “Hey Jesus, your sacrifice wasn’t good enough to clean me. I am a special kind of sinner.”

I know some adopt this posture as a form of humility but in truth, it is a false humility because it is obsession with our image of ourselves. True humility is to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on our Lord and savior. Our thoughts and words should echo scripture and his great victory which we won for us.

You are the precious, redeemed, restored, sanctified, righteous child of the most high. Let your mouth talk about what Jesus has done instead of what you have done and you will find that your glass isn’t half full. It’s overflowing.

Back to Top

No Shame

On April 20, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 1: 16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Paul was definitely a good evangelist. He did share the good news everywhere he went. I wonder why lots of us don’t tell the good news any more than we do. I think in a sense we are ashamed. Perhaps we are not ashamed of the gospel per se but we are embarrassed or ashamed of sounding like a Jesus freak. Maybe were are afraid of rejection. Paul certainly wasn’t, though, and life could be pretty dangerous for his exhortation of the gospel.

Paul had a revelation of the power of the gospel. Maybe that is what made him so bold and me so timid. Or do we get so caught up in the busyness of our life that we don’t take a moment to be concerned over anyone else. Looming on my horizon is my next twenty to do items and the three big projects sitting on my desk. What will happen in eternity if I get none of that done? I mean, how important are they really? Are my deadlines arbitrary? Does any of it matter that much? When I think of this in light of the eternity of someone’s soul I feel a bit embarrassed. Is it really too much for me to take five minutes to ask my banker if he knows the saving power of the gospel?

You know, I heard a good story the other day about a woman who took the time to notice someone else and when she did she saw that other person suffering. She offered to pray for the woman who’s countenance was forlorn. You know what? Her bravery afforded her the opportunity to meet someone’s need. But I am too busy. Maybe I walked right by that same woman and never even looked at her.

Lord God, give us all the courage of our convictions. Give us joy bubbling up out of us that begs to be shared. Help us to be like Paul and see not the consequences to ourselves but the significance to others. Help us to share the power of the gospel with those who are in need.

Back to Top