The Seed of Life

On May 14, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 12: 24

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

No one wants to die but if we die to Jesus, giving him our lives, then we are born anew of incorruptible seed which bears much fruit.

Jesus was talking about giving up his life, dying, so that he might bear much fruit. Only through death does the wheat generate new life. So it is with us. When we lay down our lives God creates a new life with that seed. We are reborn in the image of Christ. This is not, however, primarily a salvation message unless you embrace the full definition of salvation. When Jesus speaks of salvation he means saving grace in absolutely every area of our lives, in every aspect of human experience. 

Paul wrote about this need to lay down our lives and live to Christ. He said “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4: 22, 24). You see, there must be a continual surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. We must continually bury our self-induced desires and put on the mantle of Christ. In other words, this dying to self is, at least for most of us, a continuing process. Few people have the ability to once and for all give everything to Christ. Typically we grow in our spiritual life and as we do we find things which we are ready to release to him. The central theme is that we must crucify this flesh which seeks only to indulge self. It seeks to satisfy and promote the ego. When, however, we take on the crucifixion of our Lord, we bury the selfish desires and live unto him. We seek to honor and promote him. The only way to do this, though, is to die. And when we do, he raises us anew. Each time we bury a self-oriented aspect of our personalities he raises up a glorified version. Then there is no more striving for then we can truly walk in his grace. Our eyes become fixed on him and we live in him. 

This may sound mystical and other worldly but it really is as simple as taking our eyes off of ourselves. We may notice how often we use the pronoun “I” and surrender those areas to our Christ. We may notice when our vision is full of ourselves instead of on the kingdom and pray for help in crucifying the carnal person. The key is that when we die, we live. Everything that we bury, Jesus resurrects in new and glorious life. We never lose anything. We gain everything.

Please search your heart today. Is your energy spent satisfying your needs and desires or are you truly devoted to Christ today? Is he your focus and desire? Is your work dedicated to him, your leisure, your home life, your thought life? Are your songs a testimony to him? How about the words you speak? I am not saying that you cannot have anything for yourself. I am only saying for you to let him give them to you instead of you seeking them.

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I Know the Way

On May 13, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

John 14: 6

I am the way . . .

This is more than a salvation message; it is for everyday.

Jesus is the way to heaven. We all know that but he is also the solution to everyday problems. It is so easy for our life with Jesus to slip into the background. Everyday has so much of its own busyness and trials that those things end up in the foreground of our minds. Increasingly our walk with Jesus ends up being a passive relationship. Well, Jesus wants to know that not only can he help with all of the matters of the day but also that he is willing. In fact, he is more than willing. He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives.

Our work life is harder than it need be. Jesus said he can take that burden and make it light (Matthew 11: 28 – 30). I keep proving this to myself because the days that I really give to the lord and allow him to lead me all day are amazingly less challenging than the days which I do in my own strength. Some days I just go straight to my computer and start working without even pausing to say, “Good morning Lord.” Man, that is a predictor of how the day is going to go. On those days it seems that I work hard all day and get little accomplished. Then there are the other days when I really do let him be Lord of my day. The ease of those days is almost measurable. So, I wish I would learn this lesson once and for all – give the Lord everything; invite him into everything I do. 

He is the way to handle your family, your occupation, your workout, and even your leisure. He is the way for diet, time management and your spiritual life. He can (and will) give you shortcuts throughout the day because he can do in a second what you cannot do in a whole day. The more we fill up Dad’s inbox, the more He likes it and the better our lives go. He fills us with a holy ease and that is good. Whatever you are doing today, stop for a moment and check in with him. See if he has any advice or guidance. Give him your day and he will give you back good fruit.

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Talking to Rocks

On May 12, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Numbers 20: 8, 11

Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink. Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came for abundantly and the congregation and their beasts drank.

This is undoubtedly one of the hardest lessons for us to learn. Moses sure learned it the hard way. God told him to speak to the rock and the rock would then yield its water. Moses, instead, struck the rock with his rod. It was an act of pure defiance and it cost Moses dearly. Because he disobeyed God, striking the rock instead of speaking to it, Moses was not allowed to go into the land of promise.

I don’t believe Moses was kept out of the Promised Land as some form of punishment. I think God couldn’t use Moses to take the people into the Promised Land. God was teaching His people that you must speak to your mountains if you want them to move. When they finally did enter into the Promised Land behind Joshua they took Jericho with obedience and a shout. God knew what lay ahead and He had a plan to turn over the land to the Israelites. In order to receive their new land the Israelites need to learn obedience, when to speak and when not to speak. There is a deep message here and it has a great deal to do with the words of our mouth. 

Our words are containers for God’s power. However, if we cannot marshal our tongues then He cannot give us His power. When God instructed the people to march around Jericho He also gave them explicit directions about when to keep silent and when to speak. When the appropriate time came they were instructed to shout. Then the walls of Jericho fell at their feet and all they did was march, obey and speak.

Jesus told us to speak to our mountains in the same way that the Israelites spoke to those walls. (Matthew 17: 20, Matthew 21: 21, Mark 11: 23). He learned from his father that the way to get water from a rock or to get a problem to desist was to speak to it. This is the lesson we must learn if we would live the life of success and grace that Jesus meant for us. Jesus did not say that if we would pray to the Father the mountain would get up and jump in the sea. Now I believe most earnestly in prayer but I am also fervent about doing what Jesus said. That means that I must eventually embrace this notion of speaking to the rock and commanding it to give me water, and talking to that mountain and ordering it into the sea.

I do not expect this teaching to be comfortable. It isn’t to me but I understand that this is where a great number of us are missing it with God. He has told us to speak to the rock and we’re running around hitting it with a stick. There is a time to pray. There is a time to seek. There is also, though, a time to speak to that mountain and this we must learn. Whatever that mountain is that is blocking your way, start speaking to it in the name of Jesus. Tell it what the Word says and tell it to move out of the way. It has to obey.

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Leadership Through Encouragement

On May 11, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 3: 13

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

We all need encouragement and by this verse we might conclude that we need it daily. People need to hear that they are a blessing or that they are doing things well. I am learning that leaders are encouragers. Several times this spring God has impressed upon that a large part of leadership is encouraging others. I can’t say that I knew that before. I’ve probably heard it but it certainly never sank in. Now I see that encouragement is a key piece of leadership and effective management.

As the Father has impressed this on me I began to ask why we are not naturally better at encouraging others. I have concluded that we are not good encouragers because we are so needy ourselves. We are working so hard at getting what we need and what we want that we have little time or inclination to attend to the needs of others. It is not that we do not wish to be sources of light. It is just that we are consumed with our own stuff. We don’t even look up at others and attempt to be a blessing to them.

However, think of the people that are encouragers in your life. Their emails and phone calls are like a breath of fresh air aren’t they? You really know who these people are. They are the first ones to tell you that you did a good job. They compliment your work, your attire and everything they can find which is well done. And yet these people will never lie to you. They seem to know the value of speaking the truth. They won’t tell you something is excellent unless it is and that makes their praise even more valuable. Another thing about them is that you never have to solicit their compliments. They are free with earned praise. We love having these people in our lives. Now the next step is to become like them.

My sense is that this is an expression of the love and kindness of our Father. Encouragers have received the love of God in their hearts and they are compelled to share it with others. It just flows out from them like a river. They don’t seem to strain, they don’t have to concoct a compliment or cogitate over it. It just flows out from them easily and freely. They are satisfied that God loves them so their striving is done. They are no longer grabbing for all the comfort they can get so they are able to lift their eyes off of themselves and see the grace, beauty and hard work of others. They have peace in their souls so that they can hear the Father’s words of encouragement bubbling up inside them; then they ever so effortlessly just release those words into the lives of others.

Today I wish to celebrate all those people who extend themselves to others to keep us encouraged. I also wish to offer a prayer for all of us that our Father would fill our needy souls with the certainty of His abundant love and acceptance for us. Lastly I wish to exhort each one of you to speak a word of encouragement to someone today. Perhaps we could even make it a goal to encourage one person a day every day.

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Shipwrecked

On May 8, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 27: 11

But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship, than by what was being said by Paul.

What a statement. It is also a precise commentary on our times!

Paul was on a ship being taken to Rome. With difficulty the ship reached a place called Fair Havens. It seems to me that a place called Fair Havens might have been a good place for them to have waited out the storms. Paul told the Centurion not to sail because God had forewarned him about the impending danger should they continue. However, the centurion gave greater weight to the testimony of the captain and pilot than he did Paul. The next caption in the story is “shipwrecked”. They lost all their cargo and the ship.

I like to think that I would have listened when Paul spoke knowing, as I do, that he heard the voice of God but in truth we see the same dynamic played every day. People give heed to the voice and advice of the world rather than listening to the leading of God. We have the Bible pointing out the way, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and anointed women and men of God, prophets who have been given the word of truth to give us. Still, we listen to the doctors, TV news and even our heathen brother-in-law rather than to the Word of the living God. It is a crime, a travesty and dare I say, a sin. The next thing you know we are shipwrecked and we wonder what happened. “Didn’t you promise to meet my needs and protect me,” we ask the Lord, but we never wait around to hear Him say, “I tried to keep you from making that choice knowing it would lead to shipwreck but you wouldn’t listen to me, didn’t want to hear what I was saying.”

The truth is, most of us give more attention and weight to worldly advice, to the advice of mere men, than we do to the Word of the Lord. A prophet comes to us and says, “This is the Word of the Lord” and we scoff. We have little respect for our spiritual leaders and teachers. We may at times act like we honor them but when it comes to what we will be persuaded by many of us are like this centurion. It is how we were raised and has become habit.

But you are cut out of a different cloth, out of the very raiment of Jesus. You can make better choices. You can choose who you will allow to influence you. Will it be the world or the Lord? Although you don’t have Paul on the ship with you, you do have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit who was sent to be your guide. Give this a hard think today. To whom are you listening? Who is persuading you and guiding your actions? Are you allowing God to speak to you or are you being led by a person. Well, the captain and the pilot of the ship may seem to be authoritative voices and experienced sailors but God knows all and He loves you.

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Praise in Place of Fear

On May 7, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 9: 2 – 4

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Thou shalt multiply the nation, thou shalt increase their gladness; they will be glad in Thy presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide spoil. For Thou shalt break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor as at the battle of Midian.

Many people look upon the last days as days of darkness and they are afraid. Well, in truth, there will be great darkness and even now that is the case but the light prevails. I have read the end of the book as have you. We know how the story ends. Although there is great darkness in the world the light is even greater. Where darkness touches the earth, the light shall increase and shall disperse the dark for there cannot be darkness in the light. Do not fear days of darkness. Jesus is the light and He reigns!

Think of Paul walking on the Damascus road. Now there was a fellow who walked in darkness but behold, a great light came upon him and he was saved. There will be glory and praise in the lands of darkness because when the light comes there is no greater joy experienced by mankind. 

These people are under a yoke of deception and oppression but Jesus came to set all people free. There is liberty in Jesus and he is going to break the yoke off of their shoulders. Even today, people are getting set free all over the world even in dark countries.

We have a part in this great prophecy. First, we must not fear the dark. We should glory in the light rather than fear the dark. It is all about where our eyes are trained. If we are in fear rather than faith it simply means that we are looking at the wrong thing. Take your eyes off of the darkness and put them on the Son of light. Then your gladness will increase as the noonday sun. Secondly, pray for all peoples in all lands. There is great deception at work but the Son is the light and the truth. Where he is there can be no darkness and he breaks off the chains of lies. Third, there is great cause for celebration and praise. Glory in the Father of light. Shout His name and sing His praises for He is good and He has caused truth and light to be revealed in this earth. Glory to the Father!

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Land of Contempt

On May 6, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 9: 1

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

There has been a great reconciliation going on since the time of Jesus. God has always had it in His heart that ALL peoples should be welcomed into the family, even the Gentiles. When Jesus was eight days old he was taken to the temple in Jerusalem and a devout man named Simeon took Jesus into his arms and under the anointing of the Holy Spirit proclaimed that he was “A light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel” (Luke 2: 32). Jesus even came from a Gentile land as we see above. 

Though certain lands appear to be cursed and the lands of undesirable people God has a plan for reconciliation. People often divide the world into “we” and “they” but God loves everyone. He sees everyone as a child of His. Some children do not honor their parents and run off in defiance but God loves one and all. 

We too once were errant children but many of us were fortunate to live in a land blessed by God, a land known by God and where God is known. But even as Jesus came from the other side of Jordan so will many others and they will find the grace of God awaiting them. There is no one too far gone that God cannot save. His hand is not too short to reach into lands treated with contempt and bring out children. Let us pray for the Lord of the Harvest to touch and save our friends, family and others who are figuratively living across the Jordan. Let us also pray for those lands which are estranged from God that they may find truth, love and mercy. There is darkness but the light is much greater.

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