Monthly Archives: December 2019

December 17, 2019 · 6:00 AM

The Importance Of Encouragement

One of the things I’m studying right now is the different stages in our walk with Jesus that we all go through. In the beginning stages, we explore Christianity and Christ to see if we want to be a person of faith. In the next stage, you make a decision to follow Jesus and want to grow your faith. However, you’re not sure that you’re ready to let that faith permeate your whole life, nor are you ready to be public with it. After that stage, you grow into a deeper faith where you begin to depend on Jesus daily. Your relationship with Jesus moves from a Sunday experience to a daily one. While you are moving close to Christ, you remain in the driver’s seat of their life. That leads us to the final stage where your life is centered around Jesus and what He wants. When you’re here, your love for Jesus is your driving force. You give tithes, serve in the church and evangelize more than in the other stages. You’re on the brink of spiritual greatness, but often there’s a gap between your love of God and your love for people.

Whatever stage you’re in, one of your greatest needs is to be encouraged and to be challenged to go deeper in your faith. You need people in your life who will, as Proverbs 27:17 puts it, sharpen you as iron sharpens iron. You need people who will encourage you to make a deeper commitment to Jesus, to love others the way you love God and to dig deeper into the Bible. It’s not enough at any stage to simply read the Bible. Each of us must meditate on what we’ve read. We need to think about what’s being said, why it was said and how does it apply to us. Our prayers can’t be just a once or twice a day thing. They need to be a running dialogue with God throughout our day where we seek Him for guidance, tell Him about things that are happening and express our love for Him.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing” (NLT). If you recognized what stage you are in, let me encourage you to grow into the next stage. There’s always more in Christianity. None of us ever have it totally made. We’re all growing. We’re all learning. We’re all being called into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Jesus. We each need to find someone who has a greater relationship with Jesus and to ask them to help us grow. We each need to be finding someone who is in the same stage with us so we can encourage each other as we navigate this life of faith. Finally, we need to find someone less mature in the faith so we can encourage and guide them through the places we’ve already been. We all need encouragement, so let’s start with giving it to others instead of waiting for someone to give it to us.

Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 16, 2019 · 5:55 AM

The Importance Of Excellence

It was a sculptor named Frederic Bartholdi who designed and built the Statue of Liberty. It was built and then dedicated in New York City In 1886. It would be nearly 20 years later when the Wright brothers first took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Yet, when building the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi refused to cut corners, especially on the head of Lady Liberty. To think that someone would ever be able to see the top of her head never crossed his mind, but he took the time to put the same amount of work and detail up there. When you’re driven by excellence, you focus even on the details you don’t think that others will see. You understand that when you get the small details right, the big problems rarely show up.

My personal motto is, “If it has my name on it, it needs to be done with excellence.” If I’m going to spend my time working on something, I want to make sure I don’t cut any corners or do a job that will reflect poorly on me. In my mind, I think about how the things I do don’t just reflect myself, but God. As a person who bears the name Christian, I should also be concerned about the reputation of the One whose name I bear. According to 1 Corinthians 12:7, each one of us are given gifts by God in order to help each other. If we’re going to maximize our gifts and their effects in the lives of others, it’s important that we understand how to use them and that we focus on using them well. We should never take these gifts lightly.

Galatians 6:4 says, “Let everyone be devoted to fulfill the work God has given them to do with excellence, and their joy will be in doing what’s right and being themselves, and not in being affirmed by others” (TPT). You have work that God has called you to do through the unique gifts He has equipped you with. If you don’t use them, or do your work half heartedly, you diminish the ripple affect into the lives of others. To have the greatest impact on this world, we each need to know our giftings and operate in them with the excellence they deserve. Put time into perfecting the details, even the ones you think no one will ever see. You never know what God will do or how He May bless your commitment to doing all things with excellence.

Photo by Yoann Boyer on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 13, 2019 · 5:45 AM

The Importance Of Sharing

I once heard someone say, “When you share your grief, you cut it in half. When you share your joy, you double it.” Those words have always stuck with me. When we’re joyful, we’re always looking to share it with someone. However, when we’re sad, we tend to become introverted and try to handle the burden all on our own. Instead of verbalizing it, we internalize it thinking we’re the only one who feels this way. We believe the lie that no one can empathize because no one has gone through what we’re going through. It’s important to break away from that lie and find someone we trust to share our sadness with.

As Christians, sharing should be a part of our culture. The Bible tells us to confess our sins one to another. Why do we need to do that if God is the one who forgives? Because God designed it so that we would find healing by sharing our struggles. There are so many positive things that happen when we share whether it’s our feelings, our struggles or even our belongings. God created the Church so we would have a safe place to share these things. From the beginning, God said that it wasn’t good for man to be alone. He wants us in community where we can share and help each other out.

Here are some Bible verses on sharing.

1. Stand on your feet alert, then you’ll always be ready to share the blessings of peace.

Ephesians 6:15 TPT

2. Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers.

Romans 12:13 GNT

3. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 NLT

4. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith [for preaching the message of salvation], still I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

Philippians 2:17-18 AMP

5. Now our hope for you is unshakable, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings you will also share in God’s comforting strength.

2 Corinthians 1:7 TPT

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 12, 2019 · 5:30 AM

Finding Healing

Several years ago, I went through some very dark times in my life that I wasn’t sure I’d make it through. They left some very deep scars that I thought would never heal. Instead of going through a true healing process, I decided that it was best to treat that portion of my life as if it were a dream. I covered the wounds and vowed to never speak of them again. I thought that if I pretended it never happened, then I wouldn’t feel the pain of it. That seemed to work for a while until Dave Roever spoke at our church one Sunday.

Dave is a Vietnam veteran who had a phosphorus grenade blow up in his hand near his head as he was throwing it. He survived the explosion, but as a result of the explosion, he has a very disfigured face and hand. He told his story of his recovery and how God has used that terrible event to help him reach so many vets for Christ. Then he wrapped up his sermon by saying, “Don’t hide your scars. For in them, others will find their healing.”

I knew at that point it was time to unwrap my wounds to let them heal. I had to dig down inside, bring up all that hurt again to deal with it properly so God could use my story to help others find their healing. That’s how this site began actually. It was a way for me to process the hurt, but also a way for others to find their healing too. II Corinthians 1:4 says, “He (God) comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us” (MSG).

I don’t know the pain you’ve been through or are going through, but I do know that God has never left your side. He wants to help you heal your wounds so that He can bring others along side you who are going through something similar. He wants to use your scars to bring healing to others if you’re willing to let Him. Their situation may not be identical to yours, but the pain is the same and so is the healing process. Don’t hide your scars. Let God use them to help someone else who desperately needs your story.

Photo by Christopher Ruel on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 11, 2019 · 5:51 AM

The Two Influencers

John Maxwell, one of the world’s top leadership experts, says that leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. Every one of us influence others in some way. We use our charms, our gifts of persuasion and our example of living to influence others. From the time we are children we look for ways to get other people to do what we want, which mostly benefits us. Great leaders don’t use their influence to get what they want though. They use their influence to help others grow. Take a moment to think about the people in your life who influence you. Are they getting you to do what they want or are they helping you to become a better person?

Additionally, we have two unseen influencers in our lives: the Holy Spirit and our sinful nature. One is trying to influence us to live a godly life, while the other is trying to get us to live for ourselves. If you take a moment to look at the fruit of your life, you’ll see who you are allowing to influence you more. Galatians 5:19-22 lists the fruits of both influencers, and it’s a good idea to look into the mirror of your life to see what fruit you’re producing. These two influencers produce very different fruits and all of us are producing one kind or the other. It’s a matter of whose voice you’re listening to and whose desires you want to satisfy. Galatians 5:16 says, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves” (NLT).

The Holy Spirit is constantly speaking to us leading us into Christ-like living. He uses reminders of God’s Word to challenge us and to push us. Your sinful nature plays on your sympathies to get you to do what it wants. It tries to convince you that you deserve a little pleasure for what you’ve been going through. If you’re going to be influenced and led by the Spirit, you’re going to have to quit giving into the sympathetic voice that gets you to cave to sin. If you want to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, you’re going to have to let the Holy Spirit guide your life. His way is not the easy way because it’s the opposite of what your sinful nature wants, but it produces the fruit that allows you to influence others for God’s Kingdom.

Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 10, 2019 · 5:47 AM

Choosing Your Identity

Over 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to live in Egypt. It was an incredible experience. Around this time of year, I learned something that I had not known. Several of my American friends were gearing up to go to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other nice cities in the Middle East to buy Christmas presents for their kids. I heard one parent yelling to the other one, “Make sure you grab the right passports!” Thinking it was a strange request, I asked what they meant by “right passports”. They explained that because the Middle East hated Israel so much, if they had a stamp from Israel in their passport, they would deny them entry into their country. So they had one passport for traveling around the world, and one just for traveling in the Middle East. To me, it was like having two identities.

I’ve realized through the years, each of us have competing identities within us. One is the life that we were created to live and the other is the one created by the fall of Adam. Each of them have very different desires and are at war with each other. Paul, who named himself the Chief of Sinners, knew the struggle all to well as the Early Church was forming. Many believers had grown up trying to earn God’s favor by performing rituals and were struggling to understand grace. In Galatians 2, Paul explained to them, and to us, that it’s our Adamic identity that wants us to think our relationship with God is based on what we do. In verse 20, he wrote, “My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me— we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine!” (TPT)In effect, Paul was telling us he canceled his Adamic passport.

Each of us need to choose to cancel our old identity. When we accept Christ, we’re given a new one that is powered by grace instead of works. It’s not what we do that earns God’s favor, but Christ who lives in us. He is our righteousness before God. You are enough because He is enough, and He lives within you. We have to crucify the old way of thinking daily and accept our identity in Christ. So many of us are struggling to move forward in our Christianity because we’re still trying to carry around two passports. We’re trying to live like Adam on Saturday and like Christ on Sunday. That’s a hard way to live. When we cancel our old identity, Jesus gives us new life that allows us to live the life we were created to live. It’s a daily, and sometimes hourly, choice we must make to live the life Jesus has called us to.

Photo by Jaimie Harmsen on Unsplash

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 9, 2019 · 5:40 AM

The Jesus Effect

One of the first rules you learn as a child is that you become like those you hang out with. Someone once said, “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you, you.” We tend to take on attributes, accents and habits of the people we spend time with. I read a study once that showed how kids don’t take on their parent’s accents. They take on the ones of their friends. Think about the people you are around the most. Good or bad, they’ve had an affect on the things you like, the places you go and even the foods you eat. They have changed you as much as you have changed them.

In the book of Acts, the disciples went around preaching and healing people the way Jesus did. They went to the Temple to pray and to educate others on the Scriptures. As they approached the gate one day, a beggar who couldn’t walk asked them for money. Instead of money, they brought him to his feet healed. The religious leaders threw them in jail for it. As they were being questioned the next day about it, Peter spoke up and told them it was done through the power of Jesus’ name. Acts 4:13 says, “The council members were astonished as they witnessed the bold courage of Peter and John, especially when they discovered that they were just ordinary men who had never had religious training. Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with him” (TPT).

Think about that. They saw the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with Him. Just like you and your friends have an affect on each other’s lives, our lives are affected by spending time with Jesus. The more time you spend with Him, the greater the effect He will have on your life. We, like the disciples, will become more like Him each and every day. You can be an ordinary person and have an extraordinary change in your life, and in the lives of others, by spending time in prayer, reading the Bible and resting in His presence. Just like anything in the Bible, we have to be the ones to take the first step. The change happens after we make the time to spend with Him.

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

4 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 6, 2019 · 5:40 AM

Being Great

One of the best Christian books I’ve read is “Good to Great In God’s Eyes” by Chip Ingram. It starts off asking the question, “Is it really wrong to want to be great?” As a Christian, we’re taught to be humble, but somehow we’ve equated being humble with being average. It’s as if you can’t be great and humble at the same time. I don’t want to live an average life, and I don’t believe we were created to either. The words from Jim Collins book, “Good to Great”, spoke to my soul when he wrote, “Good is the enemy of great.” How often do we settle for good when God has created us for great things? How often have we felt ashamed for wanting to be great?

When the disciples asked Jesus about who would be the greatest, He didn’t chastise them. He simply explained that greatness in His kingdom isn’t measured the same way it is in our world. He put the desire in you to be great, and even gave us the Great Commission as our mission. You can’t have the impact on the world that you’re called to have and not be great. The difference is that in His kingdom, greatness comes from serving others and helping them reach their God-given potential. It’s about magnifying His name instead of our own. If you truly want to be great in God’s kingdom, then you’re going to have to be disciplined and do things that make an impact on eternity.

Here are some Bible verses on being great in God’s kingdom.

1. So whoever breaks one of the least [important] of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:19 AMP

2. But this is not your calling. You will lead by a completely different model. The greatest one among you will live as the one who is called to serve others, because the greatest honor and authority is reserved for the one with the heart of a servant.

Matthew 20:26-27 TPT

3. Whoever makes himself great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be made great.

Matthew 23:12 GNT

4. The silence was deafening—they had been arguing with one another over who among them was greatest. He sat down and summoned the Twelve. “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”

Mark 9:34-35 MSG

5. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.

Matthew 19:30 NLT

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 5, 2019 · 5:39 AM

The Key To More Power

If spending quality time with God is the way to having a quality spiritual life, then fasting is the way to having a more powerful spiritual life. Giving up our time shows God we are making Him a priority. Giving up food shows Him that we are willing to sacrifice our physical comfort for spiritual gain. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that I’m afraid too few Christians engage in. Either we don’t see the purpose or we don’t see the value, so we don’t do it. When we skip fasting as a spiritual discipline, we miss out on a strength that’s needed to overcome certain things in our lives.

In Mark 9, there is a story of a man who asked Jesus to heal his son who was possessed by an evil spirit. In verse 18 he said, “I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” They had spent quality time with Jesus, but hadn’t been fasting and praying so they lacked the power to heal him. Jesus told them in verse 29, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting.” He inferred that there is more power in fasting.

When you are in need of more power to overcome a temptation, to find the right direction, or to get through a situation, I encourage you to fast and to pray. Your fast should be between you and God. Don’t make an outward show of it or tell people you are doing it so they will feel sorry for you. Jesus said that if you did that, you have your reward. I’d rather have the power of God than the approval of man. It’s our choice when we fast.

In Matthew 6:16, Jesus said, “When (not if) you fast, don’t make it obvious.” He knew that our human nature likes to receive sympathy from others. We like to play to the crowd and to get others to feel sorry for us. Fasting is not about that at all. It’s about showing God you have brought your body under discipline and are denying it what it needs in order to gain what your spirit needs. It shows Him we are willing to feed our spirit instead of our stomach.

The Bible talks of many different types of fasts and lengths of fasts. How long, what you fast, and why you fast are between you and God. I always feel like the more challenging the fast, the greater reward. If my fast costs me nothing, that’s about what I’ll get in return. The greater the need in my life, the greater the fast I do. Some are mentally challenging, but all are physically challenging. Before I fast, I usually seek God on what He wants me to fast and for how long. Once decided, I pray for the need every time I have a desire for what I’m fasting. I’ve learned that giving up what I want for what He wants changes me for the better every time.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 4, 2019 · 5:47 AM

The Garden Of Life

On one of my trips to Israel, we visited one of the places recognized as the place where Jesus was buried. As we walked into the Garden Tomb area outside the current walls of Jerusalem, a person behind me said, “This looks like a cemetery.” I laughed, turned around, and said, “That’s because it is!” The place is beautiful and peaceful. It’s easy to forget where you are as you stroll through the garden. It doesn’t feel like a touristy spot like so many places here do. It’s a relaxing a spiritual experience for sure.

After looking at Golgotha and going inside the tomb, we stepped aside and took communion. As I was holding the bread and the juice, I kept thinking about my comment that it was a cemetery. This was a garden with a tomb in it really. As I thought about that more, and we took communion, I began to reflect on the garden aspect of the place. A garden is a place where things grow. It’s a place where life thrives.

What better place for Jesus to be buried than in a garden, a place of life. Jesus came so that we may have life, and life more abundant. As I looked around this garden, I kept thinking about how it was a reflection of who He was. It was a place of peace for the Prince of Peace. It was full of life like the giver of life Himself. Jesus wasn’t buried in a place that was surrounded by other dead bodies. He was surrounded by life.

As I walked away from that place, there was a small plaque of John 14:6. In that verse, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE.” I had always focused on the first two, but had rarely thought about what it meant for Him to be the life. He can grow the most beautiful things in our life where it looks like a cemetery. He can speak life into your most impossible situation because there is nothing too hard for Him. Don’t look at the problems in your life as an end. Give that to the Lord and He will turn them into a place of life and growth like the garden near His empty tomb.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,