Story Time

On January 30, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Jude 20 – 21

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

May I tell you a story today? Recently I attended an event where I met another pastor. He and I began to discuss our ministries and to my surprise I characterized my ministry by saying, “I hang out in God’s love.” I told him that is the most important topic of my ministry. Let me tell you why that is funny.

When I was young, I thought the pastors who preached on love sounded like a bunch of milk toast sissies. I was young, tough and strong. I wanted to hear about a strong God. Then I ran into my pastor for my life, Pat Markley. No one would every call Pat a sissy. In fact, he was a former navy seal. It was no accident that our Father led me to Pat. I needed that image to help me understand that true love is tough and strong. So, though I have learned much since then, I still found myself surprised identifying myself and my ministry in such a manner.

The other pastor immediately began to speak of God’s wrath. Again, a bit funny in that I had just had a conversation with someone else about God’ compassion where I said, “How can anyone know the Father and believe Him to be angry?” We have made great sport about God striking us with lightening when we say something foolish, but I always thought people knew better. Well, this pastor believes it is his job to preach on God’s wrath. This same preacher (perhaps a better moniker than pastor) had just quoted John 3: 16 to me, “For God so loved . . ..” I mean, get a revelation, “God is love,” (1 John 4: 8).

I encourage you to read the book of Jude. It is quite short. Jude does spend 19 verses recounting the history of the wicked and from that this preacher got his message. However, it isn’t until verse 20 that Jude begins to address his audience and when he does direct his words directly to his audience, his message is love. He spends the first part of his book on the historical record, but his conclusion, his actual message comes after the conjunction “but” in the twentieth verse. That is the way arguments are constructed. The prelude is the background against which the message shall be forecast. His message, then, is “keep yourselves in the love of God.”

Our God is love; He is characterized by love. He did not send his beloved son to earth to die a horrible death just so He could pour out His wrath upon us! Come on! God isn’t sending people to hell. His whole thing is saving people from hell. Some people refuse to be saved, and that is their choice. With free will comes the choice to choose heaven or hell. Back in Deuteronomy God told us the choice between life and death was ours to make but His recommendation was that we choose life (Deuteronomy 30: 19).

After that evening and discussion regarding wrath versus love, I came home and read Jude multiple times. I read it and prayed until I was certain Father had ministered His wisdom to me regarding the book. I came away with the conviction that God is love. To know the Father is to know love. My mission is to bring people into the presence of God. In His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16: 11). How can His presence be full of joy if He is an angry, vengeful God? To know God is to know unsurpassed love. The more we get to know Him, the more we will see that He is love.

Therefore, my message is simply this, God loves you! He loves you far more than you can even imagine. He loves you more than you love your own children. He wants you saved and living eternally with Him in heaven. Be blessed in the truth.

Back to Top

Long and Full

On February 11, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Exodus 23: 26     NLT

I will give you long, full lives.

I want to go back to Exodus today to tie this point in with the blessing and our choices. Let’s think, again, about what is going on here.

God has liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The people had a slave mentality, so the Father is having to teach them how to live with His presence and how to flourish. He is having to completely rebuild His nation, and this, really is, from the ground up. He has just taught them about the blessing of Abraham which is theirs by birth. He also warned them about the curse. Then He concluded by telling them that He has given them the choice between life and death but that, ultimately, it is their right to choose. This is of critical importance!

God very clearly articulates His will here. He wants to give us long, full lives. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” (John 10: 10 NIV). In this we see the continuity between the Father and the Son. God sent Jesus to earth so that we might have abundant, full lives. Now, why is this so important? For health to continue to bloom in our lives we must begin with the understanding that God wants us to have long full lives. We must settle in our hearts that God isn’t trying to kill us. Remember the story of Job and how He struggled. Once He came to understand the truth, he was able to receive full restoration. As long as He thought God was tormenting Him, He was defeated. The same will be true for us. One cannot pray in faith for healing if he has the misconception that God created his sickness. You cannot believe in your heart that God has made you sick and that he is going to heal you. The two beliefs are inconsistent and will destroy your faith.

Go one step further, if we believe that God has caused us to be sick, then that is to say we believe God’s will is for us to be ill. Why, then, would we pray for healing? That would be to pray against God’s will. This is why it is so important that we begin by accepting God’s desire for us to live long and fruitful lives.

Understanding God’s will also impacts how we think about life and death. Many people think God holds the threads of our lives like the fates, toying with us like stringed puppets. That just is not Biblical as you will continue to see as we move forward. Yesterday’s Word of the Day was the beginning of that revelation. God said, “I have set before you life and death, . . . choose life in order that you many live,” (Deuteronomy 30: 19). God gave us the choice. His will is that we live long, abundant lives. So, this means that we have to get out of our minds and hearts two things; First, that God is pulling our life springs and two that He is responsible for taking our lives from us. We are so accustomed to saying, “Well, if it’s God’s timing . . .” but now we know it is not God’s timing. Say this aloud, “God isn’t killing me!” We’ve got to get that down in our hearts. He isn’t “taking people.” He is trying to save people. It’s what He does! We, however, don’t have to follow His leading. We make our own choices. That is point number one. Beyond that is the curse. In God’s perfect will there was no sickness to be had, but the earth fell into corruption and decay and now we must live with those consequences.

Here is the promise of God, “I will give you long, full lives.”  Meditate on that night and day until your spirit accepts it as truth. God isn’t taking life; He is the giver or life. Long, full and abundant life is His desire for you. Pray towards that reality.

Back to Top

It’s Your Choice

On January 31, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 30: 19           NOG

I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live.

Are you familiar with this verse? I want you to be. It is so very powerful and can change your life. In fact, this is a great one for you to meditate on. The piece of it I wish to highlight today is the word “choose.”

God has offered us life. He has offered us blessings. Death and the curse entered the earth in the Garden of Eden. So, both life and death and blessing and the curse are out there for the choosing. The interesting aspect is that we get to choose. I always smile when I read this verse because I hear it this way, “I have given you the choice between life and death, the blessing and the curse. Let me give you a hint. Choose life and blessing.” It is like God is trying to clue us in on which one to choose. It seems ridiculous at one level. We should be smart enough that He does not need to give us a hint and yet, it is a forebearer of a truth. We often make the wrong choice. We choose death instead of life and the curse instead of the blessing. Why would we do that?

Let me ask you a different question. Supposing you rather have life and blessing, how do you make that choice? What mechanism is in place for choosing? That is the main issue, I believe. Do folks know how to choose life? In how many ways do we choose the curse instead of the blessing? I believe most Christians do not realize there is a choice, how to make the choice, or how they are making the wrong choice daily.

One of the most poignant events in the Bible is found in the book of Joshua. As the book opens, Moses has just died. He, who was the liberator of Israel, who led them for years through their long sojourn, who importuned God for them, prayed for them, taught them, and cared for them, is dead. Now what? Shall the nation of Israel fall apart right there, having never crossed over into the promised land? It is a climactic moment is Judeo-Christian history. It could have all ended right there, on the wrong side of the Jordan. Instead, God appointed Joshua to be the leader of His people. How would you like that job, following in Moses’ footsteps? It must have been pretty frightening for Joshua. God took him aside, though, to give him the secret of success, to be his coach and mentor. God told Joshua, “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go,” (Joshua 1: 7 – 9).

I know that was a long quote but you need to see it all. Right here God gave Joshua the choice to fail or succeed. He even gave him the crib notes for the test. In other words, God didn’t make success a mystery. Success or failure lay at Joshua’s feet so God showed him the path to success. He gave him all the secrets. That is what God does.

Here is my point. Father wants us to succeed so He has given us the cheat sheet. “Here are all the answers,” He says. All we have to do is use them. How many points do you find in the quote from the book of Joshua? I counted seven. The real question is, how many of them are we doing. This is how we choose life and blessing. Joshua didn’t have to take God’s advice. We know he did because he enjoyed success and led the nation of Israel into the promised land. He chose blessing. He chose life.

Here are two of the big seven. One, do not fear. If we live in fear, we fertilize death and curse. Second, and this is a really big one, meditate in this Word day and night. When we meditate in the Word, we are actively choosing life and blessing.

This passage from Joshua teaches how to choose to live in the blessing. We need to follow where the Lord is leading. We need to communicate with him so that we see his ways generally and the specific path he points out for us. We can choose to be blessed. We can choose the abundant life Jesus said he came here to give us. I think if you will follow the advice God gave Joshua, if you will learn how to commune with Jesus and actually do it, that you will find yourself in overflow of everything good. Please, choose life, choose the blessing. It’s your choice.

Back to Top

Blessing is a Choice

On April 5, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 28: 2, 45          NIV

All these blessing will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. 45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord you God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.

He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11: 28 (NIV).

I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live. Deuteronomy 30: 19 (GW).

Lest we be deceived, thinking God has changed His tune since we are living in the New Testament, I included the words of Jesus from the gospel of Luke.  There is blessing in obedience.  No one wants to hear this, I know.  Obedience is not at the top of our favored subjects. We should not mourn, though.  There is plenty of good news here.  Yes, if we do not obey, the curse, which is in the land, will overtake us.  You do know that there is a curse out there, right?  It came with the fall of humanity, but God’s blessing is bigger than the curse.  And, it is elective.  Anyone who chooses to participate in the blessing, rather than the curse, can.  We learn that from Deuteronomy 30: 19.  God allows us to choose.  So, we can choose to be blessed and why wouldn’t we?

Well, because the price is obedience and, honestly, our generation has a problem with being told what to do, even by God.  We are very self-aware and self-guided.  That is the choice we make.  Will we humble ourselves to the direction of the Lord, or will we adhere to our own form of wisdom?  The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it, but if you observe the world around you, I think you will find very few people who are actually submitted to the Lord.

The other question which must be addressed is, “What, or whom, are we to obey?”  Jesus answered that question in Luke.  We must first humble ourselves to hearing and receiving the Word of God.  Then we obey what the Word says.  That’s it.  Listen and obey.  It sounds easy but it requires slaying our egos and that is hard.  Still, I think I would rather have the blessing than build an altar to my already over-inflated ego.  What about you?!

Back to Top

Choices

On June 27, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

James 4:4

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James had such a gentle and tender way of getting the point across, didn’t he? Well, sometimes we need someone to care enough to speak to us plainly. This is Jesus’ brother writing to us today. I said yesterday that we are called to be different from the world. James makes it much more plain. He said that “being in bed” with the enemy makes us adulteresses. Ouch! If that doesn’t sting just a bit you better take your pulse.

Of course, we all want to fit in and of course, the things of the world are attractive. God isn’t trying to deny us luxuries or pleasures, He just wants you to purchase them through the Kingdom instead of through the world. Why? Because the Kingdom is life and the world is death. God is trying to get life to us but we, being the great intellectual giants that we are, keep choosing death. I have always loved this passage from Deuteronomy, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30: 19). Father gives us the choice, like a multiple choice question on a test but before we can even choose, He gives us the answer. None the less, how many of us continue to choose death over life, the curse rather than the blessing?

To choose to live in the world and to be of the world is to choose death and curse. Jesus said that we are not of this world any more than he was. We live here but we are not “of” this world. Our choices are to be made on Kingdom principles, expecting Kingdom results. Brother James says it rather plainly – to be friends of the world, in other words living as the world lives, makes us enemies of God. Now here is the question. Do you think James wrote these words to believers or the unsaved? This is an important question because if you believe, like I do, that he wrote to believers then you understand that we, God’s own chosen and beloved, can become enemies of God by being lovers of the world. That is a huge statement. James saw a dynamic taking place in his own time and sought to address it. His passion poured out for his people. Let us, therefore, seriously contemplate our own place, whether in the world or in the Kingdom. What choices are we making on a daily basis that shift us from living in Christ to living in the world. Choose to be unique, peculiar. Choose life. Choose Christ.

Back to Top

Living Long

On July 22, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Genesis 6: 3

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.”

How long should we live? In this passage from Genesis God says a hundred and twenty years. Personally, I think that should be a minimum because this was after the fall. In other words, man in his fallen state should live to be one hundred and twenty years old. How long, then, should redeemed, restored people live? Before the fall and before the curse presumably people would live longer. Or before people learned how to die young, they lived longer.

Even in the depths of our disobedience people had an expectation of long life. In Psalm 90: 10 Moses wrote, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away.” In this Psalm Moses wrote about the Israelites’ fallen state and how they had invoked the anger of the Lord. It is a lament, not a declaration. He is almost weeping as he writes this dirge. The Israelites were not living in the grace of the Lord. They had spurned the loving grace of God and chosen instead to worship idols. Still you couldn’t kill these guys. The life of God within them continued to bear witness in their flesh despite their gross disobedience. And to further undermine this life span limitation, Moses lived to the age of one hundred and twenty. Furthermore, “Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated” (Deuteronomy 34: 7). Moses was still climbing mountains when he reached the end of his life. He wasn’t feeble and broken and you are not meant to be either. We are children of the King, endowed with the life giving power of God Almighty living in our bones. He that called forth life from the very beginning is alive and well in every cell of our bodies right now. Only, we have the switch. We can be in life and health or we can increase in sickness. God said, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30: 19). Why, then, do we keep choosing death? For goodness sakes, Moses was 80 years old when he went into ministry. “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7: 7). His ministry was just beginning. The job that he is still known for didn’t even begin until he was what some may consider advanced in years and then he stayed in that job for forty years. Let’s get a revelation folks. We have been lied to.

Now let us quickly look at Psalm 91: 16, “With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation.” While the 90th Psalm was written in the context of disobedience and God’s anger with the rebellious Israelites, the 91st Psalm is written about they who trust in the Lord. If you have section headers you may want to look in your Bible at this Psalm. My chapter heading reads “Security of the one who trusts in the Lord.” This is a direct promise to you if you live your life in Christ as we have been taught. If you trust God with you daily life then you should move out of the 90th Psalm into the 91st and expect to be satisfied with a long life. The late Kenneth Hagin said, “If you hear I have passed on you will know that I got satisfied.” And he did. He was satisfied with a long life and just laid his body down and moved to heaven.

Live as long as you want to and remain in good health the whole time. Be active and fruitful. Our Father has said “And I shall fulfill the number of your days” (Exodus 23: 26). So don’t go early unless you are satisfied. If you want to see your great-grandchildren then hang around and rely on the life giving power of our Heavenly Father.

Back to Top