Goal Achieved

On January 20, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 31: 33

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

This is the crux of the new covenant. I am especially moved by the latter part where God says that He will be our God, and we will be His people. This is where we are today. God wishes to be your personal God and you and me to be His people. There is a very personal, intimate anticipation in this. It is about the relationship that we are to enter into. No longer is God to be a distant and removed God, who can only be approached by a few select people, but rather a personal God with whom we have direct contact.

Jesus told us in John 14: 23 that He and His father would come and make their abode with us. He also told us in the 17th verse,  of that same chapter, that the Holy Spirit abides with us and in us. You see, this is a shift from the Old Testament relationship. In the new covenant, God wants to be a very personal God to us all. He no longer has His presence in an ark but rather in us as we have become the temple of the new covenant.

His Word is now a part of our hearts by the Holy Spirit and by the son himself. We have been told that Jesus is the word (John 1: 1-14). Here we see that the Word, Jesus, has come to live in our hearts. Additionally, the Holy Spirit who has been charged with teaching us and guiding us into all the truth (John 14: 26, 16:13) has made His home in our hearts. So, the Word has now been written to our hearts and is in our hearts.

The God of all creation, the God who made the sun, all the planets and every star, who made the trees, all animals and us, has come to live inside of you. He has chosen you as His temple. You are His chosen people. This is what God has been looking forward to for millennia, that we should be His people, and He should be our own God. You are the realization of His ambition.

These are the days. We are the prophesied people. You are no lowly worm of the dirt. You are the chosen people of Almighty God. You are the culmination of all of His desires and plans for thousands of years. That should make an impression on you and hopefully make you feel differently about yourself. Maybe it makes you consider your relationship with the Father a bit differently. Collectively we are the body of Christ. Individually you are a member of the body. You are important to God, immensely important. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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Lovingkindness

On March 31, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 25: 10

All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.

God wants to constantly lead you onto paths of goodness. He wants to give you a life of joy, peace and prosperity. He is a good God. But we have a part too. First, we have to yield to Him enough to let Him guide us. That means that you can’t be headstrong and independent.

Secondly, we need to learn to keep His Word. The covenant is our bargain with the Lord. It represents our promises to God and His to us. We are supposed to heed His commands and honor Him, and He is to meet all of our needs. That means our every need, every need you can even imagine. We choose to participate in this love fest, or we opt out. You participate by doing those things that you see in the word. But even that, we do not have to do on our own. We can pray and ask the father to help us to grow and to change. We can use His strength to forgive someone we would rather not forgive or whatever it is that we need to do. We move through our love for the Father and then His love for us sustains us in all things. Then all our paths will be lovingkindness and truth.

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Seeking Covenant

On January 28, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 15: 12

They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul.

This is us, entering into a covenant to seek the Lord, perhaps more intensely than ever before. How, though, do we seek the Lord? What are the practical tools at our disposal?

Most of us know the denominational church model of Christian service and worship. It is what we were raised in. Of course, we have watched that model shift over the years but still, it remains largely dependent on our church building. What do we do now that we are on our own? Of all the times, when we need the leadership of our pastors, we are isolated from them. How do these changes affect our answer to God’s call to us?

We must develop our other skills and other methods of drawing close to God. Foremost is one you probably already utilize but could grow into a bigger role for you. That is studying the Bible. Searching the Bible for answers and wisdom is seeking God and I find it always leads to communication with Him. One may simply need a rededication to time in the Bible or, perhaps, a new study tool is in the offing. I remember buying a Strong’s Concordance a long time ago. That was before online searches were available. The point is that it changed my study time significantly. One thing you can do is search out a theme. Using online search engines you can easily find every verse on a given theme or even a given word. Or maybe you are due a new daily devotional. Just be sure it is word-based. These can draw you deeper into the Word.

Another great option is to buy a Christian book. I have been so blessed by various books throughout the years. I remember how some of them stopped me in my tracks. The key is that they have to be Bible based rather than just opinion. I have read some really good books about Bible figures like Paul, Moses and David. The good authors don’t make these dry histories. They use the lives of those sages to reveal truths about our own.

Above all, be sure to stop and talk with God about what you are learning. Don’t let any of this become an intellectual pursuit of the mind. Make it about getting to know the Father better and hearing His thoughts. Don’t make Bible study a dull ritual. Dive in there and find life. Find out what books you enjoy the most. Let your spirit be engaged. That is the key for when you do, you are going to find life more abundant.

Email me and I will tell you my favorite book of all time. Also I might be able to recommend a book or two for you.

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Answer my Prayer

On December 3, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 20: 3 – 4             God’s Word

He will remember all your grain offerings and look with favor on your burnt offerings. Selah. He will give you your heart’s desire and carry out all your plans.

Do you know that there are some people to whom it is difficult to give? I had a friend that way. You couldn’t bless her. She refused kindness or just would not receive graciously. After a while, I just got tired of trying to be a blessing to her. She just made it too painful. I wonder if God has the same problem giving to us. Do we make it difficult?

Today’s psalm is a psalm of David. If you were to read the whole thing you would recognize his writing. One of the things I find most interesting in this selection is the “Selah” at the end of verse three. What is there about the content of verse three that should cause us to stop and ponder? Is it reasonable that God’s memory of all of your offerings inclines him to giving you your heart’s desire?

This would appear to be the operation of the covenant relationship between David and Yahweh. David contributed to the temple. He gave his tithes and offerings and God was aware of David’s faithfulness. David was bolstered by his gifts too because he understood the covenant. He knew that because he did his part, God would do His. There was a trust relationship between them. Of course David could boast in the name of God. He understood covenant relationships and he stood on his covenant. God proved time and again that He would do as He promised. Why then, does it seem that He isn’t fulfilling His promises to us?

If I had the answer to that I would write the book and all Christians would get all prayers answered. It is a question worth pondering though. Why would God even bother make us promises if He didn’t intend to keep them? It’s not like we had some sort of leverage to force Him to make a bargain with us. So, if He so charitably makes promises, will He not also keep them? What then marks a difference between those who receive of God and those who do not. I can’t help but think that it is this confidence that David shows in God keeping His covenant. Does that bold trust and unwavering assurance put David in a better position to receive? In verse 6 he wrote, “I know God gives me all that I ask for,” (Passion). Do you think most of us can say that with the same level of confidence? I want to be able to as I am sure you do also.

So here is what I leave you with today. What do you think distinguishes David from most of us? He was on the wrong side of the cross even, yet he had such confidence in God. Secondly, do you think the covenant relationship had something to do with David being able to receive from God? We have a better covenant than he and ours is made on better promises with a better mediator (Hebrews 8: 6, 12: 4). How is it that God gave him all he asked for when his covenant was inferior to ours and yet we do not seem to receive all we ask? I have questions for you rather than answers but often I believe the questions to be more important. Only the right question will lead you to the right answer. So, will you ponder these questions in light of today’s verse? We would love to hear from you.

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Covenant Keeper

On January 4, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 8: 18

But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

The book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ swan song, if you will. The Israelites were poised on the banks of the Jordan, ready to cross over into the promised land. This marks the end of Moses’ ministry and life. This book also represents a contract, or covenant, between God and His people. You can see that in the language of today’s verse. God reminds His people of the promises He made them and which He desires to see fulfilled in their lives.

God means to confirm His promises and His covenant to us as well. Every day we have the opportunity to cross over from the desert into the land of promise and Father wants us receive the benefits of His promises as a confirmation to all people that He is an awesome God. He wishes to bless us at least as much as we desire to have blessing flow through our lives.

At what point, though, did it become taboo to expect God to keep His word regarding wealth? The language is perfectly clear in this passage that God, Himself, is giving us power to make wealth. Sure, His design is that we do that, not in our own strength but, in unity with Him, but it is through this display of His goodness that all people will see His glory.

We have a role in this, though. We must first believe that it is God’s will to make wealth in our lives. Second, if we don’t receive this promise or its fruit, then God will appear to be an oath breaker.

For many years the church has wallowed in the false piety of poverty. We have charged God with the guilt of our sicknesses and with every other misfortune of life. The church has made excuses for failure rather than stand on God’s living Word and demand that He perform His Word. However, there is new life in the church. Believers are emerging and demanding the fullness of the gospel. They are investing their hearts, faith and even their money in the promises of God. They are living in expectation and belief and they will see their God. He has waited for a people who will believe Him and trust Him. That is us.

Let’s turn our believers and receivers to full power expecting our Father to show up and show out. The ancient Israelites certainly had no more than we, and yet look at the promise God made them. Read the twenty-eighth chapter and see the expectation level we should have. Let’s fulfill our destinies and allow the Father to confirm His Word to us.

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New Covenant

On June 2, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 8: 10

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

First things first, recognize that because of Jesus, you are now the house of Israel, so God is talking about you. There are many other passages, in both the Old and the New Testament, which speak to this new contract. In fact, one can see God’s plan unfold through the whole Bible. I could easily spend an entire week on just this aspect of God’s master plan but I will restrain myself. Just know that He has been putting the pieces in place for thousands of years.

The key here, as I see it, is that God is moving into our hearts. We are stepping into a relationship with God. I really like how this same thought is articulated in the book of Revelations, “Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children (Revelation 21: 7). God’s plan from the beginning and now was to raise a family. It ultimate goal is to have us in intimate, close relationship with Him. In the Old Testament, God was with the Israelites. He led them through the desert in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He had an improvement plan on the drawing board though. In Joel 2: 28 He said, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all of you!” This was the foretelling of the New Covenant and the new way people would walk with God. No more is God in the cloud. With this pouring out, He has come to live in us. “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3: 16).

God’s word is alive in us. He has come to earth and made a home in our hearts and spirits. No longer do we need to look outward to clouds or to an ark to behold our God. God has come to make His abode with us. We are the new Ark of the Covenant. Jesus has made all of this possible and we should seek God in our hearts and get to know Him as an intimate. He is our God and we are His people but as He has said, we are His children. The New Covenant is the indwelling presence of Almighty God and the intertwining of His spirit and yours. Get wrapped up in Him today.

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Better Promises

On June 1, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 7: 22, 8: 6

Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Hopefully you read yesterday’s devotional on the plan, or the covenant, of blessing we have under the Abrahamic Covenant. If you did you may well ask how there can be a better covenant or one enacted on better promises. The covenant of blessing was pretty huge and encompassing if you ask me. None the less, God was not satisfied with that covenant. He wanted more and better for us.

For many of us there was one major problem with the previous covenant. It was a promise to Israel, not to the gentiles so that was one important way God improved the deal. Through Jesus, we also became eligible for all of the promises under the Old Covenant. Obviously, Jesus brought a lot of benefits to us through his life, death, sacrifice and resurrection. He broke the power of hell over us and took away the sting of death. We were lost and he found us. We are redeemed, sanctified, justified, saved and restored. There is nothing in the whole Kingdom of God forbidden to us now. All of God’s thoughts and wisdom are ours. Every blessing has been poured out on all the children of earth. Sin has been cleaned away and we now stand boldly in the throne room of God unmarred by the stain of sin. Jesus did that for us. We were unable but because of his delivering grace, we have now been adopted into the family of God. We are truly and factually the children of Yahweh, Jehovah God. All He has, He has bequeathed to us. No longer are we limited to earthly blessings, the assets of heaven are now ours because of Jesus. So, yeah, he improved the covenant. It was fabulously good before but now it is off the scale wonderful.

How great is our God and glorious all His good deeds to His children. May all of His purposes be fulfilled in the earth and all of His beloved draw unto Him with great gladness.

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