Monthly Archives: September 2020

September 16, 2020 · 5:57 AM

Protect Yourself

In today’s world, everything is politicized which makes each of us feel like we have to be on one side or the other. When we choose a side in any issue, we feel we are right, which means anyone who doesn’t agree with the way we think is wrong. When we think someone is wrong about any issue we are passionate about, they become our enemy. When they become our enemy, we lose the love we’re supposed to have for them and can begin to care less if they make it to Heaven. This is a real struggle that many of us are going through in this day and age, and I believe it’s a strategy of the devil to keep us from winning souls. He has us more concerned with causes, politics and ways of thinking than with eternity. While these topics are important, we must make sure we’re not falling victim to our enemy’s deceit.

Ephesians 6:11-12 says, “Put on God’s complete set of armor provided for us, so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser! Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage” (TPT). You and I are entrenched in a spiritual war right now whether we like it or not. The enemy’s strategy right now is to get us to think our fight is against other humans who don’t think like we do. If he can distract us with that, then he can keep us from the Great Commission. When we think our struggle is with people, we direct our attacks on them. We need to put on God’s Armor each day to help us think and see people, issues and battles the way God wants us to.

Jesus showed us a different way when He said, “However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them (Matthew 5:44).” When we put on God’s Armor, we will love our enemies rather than hate them or despise them. In fact, we are to pray for them and bless them. Remember it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). The next time you feel attacked or feel like someone is your enemy, remember to put on God’s Armor, ask Him to help you love them like He does and then turn your attack on our real enemy who knows that a house divided can’t stand (Mark 3:25). Our enemy has a strategy, but so does God. We need to make sure we are aligned with God’s and are not falling for our enemy’s.

Photo by Hugo L. Casanova on Unsplash

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September 15, 2020 · 5:52 AM

Water Into Wine

A few years ago I was able to visit Cana where Jesus turned the water into wine (John 2). In the church there, they have a giant stone jar similar to what would have been used in that day. They hold about 20 gallons of water. Our guide, who was a Jewish rabbi, told us that it was important that these jars were made of stone because if it had been any other material, the wine would have been ritually unclean for the Jews attending the wedding. The day before, we had been to Nazareth and heard that the word carpenter didn’t just mean He worked with wood as it does today. Back then, it could have also meant He worked with stone. As I have thought about these two things, my mind can’t help but go to 1 Peter 2:5 where we are called “living stones”. I believe that Jesus’ first miracle was a representation of what He wants to do in us. He wants to supernaturally transform our lives on the inside.

Ephesians 4:23-24 says, “Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness” (TPT). When we embrace Christ within us, the transformation happens just like the water was turned to wine when the servants embraced what Jesus said by taking a pitcher of the water from the stones to the master of ceremonies. The inward transformation takes place instantly when we receive Christ. Becoming a new creation is a process for most of us. People may see our rough, stoney exterior still, but God is changing that too starting from the inside out.

Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you]” (AMP). Your life is being progressively changed through Christ. If God’s still working on you helping your outside to match what’s inside, you’re not alone. We’re all being made new day by day as we embrace what God has done in us and allow Him to transform us from the inside out. Jesus has turned your water into wine. Now let Him, as the stone carpenter, continue to transform you into who He created you to be.

Photo by Jasper Oversteyns on Unsplash

These stone jars from Cana held about 20 gallons

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September 14, 2020 · 5:56 AM

Studying The Textbook

When I was in school, I tried to get the best grade with the least amount of effort. I developed a system where I didn’t have to truly study for tests. I took notes in class on what the professor said. The day before the test, I simply read my notes and got a good grade. It worked so well that I quit buying textbooks at college and saved a ton. Then i had one professor who lectured and lectured every class, but when the test came, none of what he lectured was on it. I asked him where the material came from on the test, he simply replied, “From the textbook. Haven’t you been doing the daily readings?” I had a choice to make, I could drop the class and lose that money or I could buy the textbook and read. That was one of the few textbooks i bought.

There’s a lot of people who approach Christianity the way I did college. They show up for a Sunday lecture, but never open the textbook between Sunday’s. I’ve tried that too and it doesn’t work. You can never know if what’s being taught is true or not unless you know what the Bible says. In Acts 17, Paul and Silas were preaching in Berea. Their message was intriguing, but different than they had ever heard. They didn’t just accept it because they were good speakers or spoke with authority. Verse 11 says, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth” (NLT).

As believers, you and I must learn to search and study the Scriptures ourselves. Then use the tools that are available today to understand the context of them. After that we must meditate on them and learn how to apply them to our lives. Hearing and reading other people’s interpretation of them is good, but nothing replaces your study of the Scripture. Psalm 119:27 says, “Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.” If you struggle to understand the Bible, ask God to reveal it to you in a way you can understand. God doesn’t want you to be in the dark about what He says. Remember it is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psalm 119:105), and you are to hide it in your heart to keep you from sin (Psalm 119:11). God gave us this textbook to help us. Make sure you read it.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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September 11, 2020 · 5:54 AM

Never Forget

I love days like today. All across social media there will be posts remembering the attacks of September 11. People I’ll tell you that they remember where they were, how the felt and what they thought. After the attacks, you began to see people write, “Never forget.” Were nearly 20 years removed from that day, and here we are holding true to that promise to remember the lives lost, the nation coming together and how we pushed through. That’s why we want to remember isn’t it? We need to remind ourselves that we can make it through anything that comes our way. We did it in the past, so we can still do it today. It’s good to remember days like September 11th, but it’s also good to remember the things of God.

All throughout Scripture, we are told to remember things. The Israelites put up 12 stones where they crossed the Jordan River to remember the Lord’s goodness and how He brought them out of Egypt. They never wanted to forget and they wanted to let their kids know too. When we forget what God has done, we begin to devalue the role He plays in our lives. I recommend creating something to help you remember what He brought you out of, delivered you from or healed you of. Our minds tend to forget things unless we keep remembering them. When we bring things back up, it tells the brain this is important so it stores it where you can access it. As you you remember September 11th today, take time to remember what God has done for you too. He’s been faithful in the past, and He will be faithful in the future.

Here are some Bible verses on remembering.

1. Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given.

1 Chronicles 16:11-12 NLT

2. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate and thoughtfully focus on You in the night watches, For You have been my help, And in the shadow of Your wings [where I am always protected] I sing for joy.

Psalms 63:6-7 AMP

3. Remember to stay alert and hold firmly to all that you believe. Be mighty and full of courage. Let love and kindness be the motivation behind all that you do.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 TPT

4. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.

Proverbs 3:5-6 GNT

5. I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

GOD ’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with GOD (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.

Lamentations 3:19-24 MSG

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

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September 10, 2020 · 5:30 AM

Selfless Love

Several years ago, I took my first trip to Haiti with coreluv.org. One of the things we did was to go to a very poor part of town to feed some children whose parents didn’t have enough money to feed them. I’ll never forget this little girl who couldn’t have been more than five years old. She had her baby brother with her who was around a year old. She took her food and began to feed him. This plate, with a small mixture of rice, beans, and pasta, was all she would get to eat until the next day. Instead of scarfing it down, she took care of her baby brother first.

I have worked with kids my whole life, and I can’t think of any other kid who acted so selflessly. Her mom wasn’t standing there telling her what to do. She did it out of love while starving. I was broken in that moment. I grabbed another plate, put a couple of spoons of rice on it, and grabbed her brother to feed him so she could eat as much as she wanted. After her brother ate, he fell asleep in my arms, and I began to reflect on what I witnessed.

In Philippians 2, Paul starts out asking if God’s love has made a difference in our lives. He then says, in verses 3-4, that if it has, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (NLT). This little girl in Haiti exemplified who we are supposed to be as Christians.

If you and I could act as selflessly as this little girl, the world would stop and take notice. I’ve read many stories where Christians have acted selflessly and won entire villages and towns to Christ. If we are going to be called by His name, we should be trying to have His attitude in our lives. Do something today that puts someone else’s needs above your own. Bless them selflessly, putting their needs ahead of yours, and then tell them God loves them. We become more like Jesus one selfless act of love at a time.

Me with the baby boy as he fell asleep

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

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September 9, 2020 · 5:56 AM

Preparing To Help Others

Several years ago I got a group of people together online who were going through difficult times. My plan was to meet with them each day for 30 days to provide them with encouragement from God’s Word as I shared the struggle I had made it through. I think we were about a week into it when one of the participants messaged me and said, “We get it that you made it through. What we need to know is how you made it through.” It was an aha moment for me as a writer, but as I went to answer her, I realized I hadn’t stopped to consider the steps I had taken to survive. The group quickly fizzled out because I didn’t have that answer. I wanted to help them, but just because I had walked where they were walking didn’t help them much. It gave them hope that they could survive, but still left them without a roadmap out.

There are several books of the Bible that share with us the struggles that David went through. He waited nearly 15 years from the time he was anointed king to becoming king, he ran from Saul, faced a coup from his son, sinned against God and so much more. His life was not perfect and he went through a lot. Reading about those things is inspiring, but it’s the Psalms that draw us in because they are the roadmap. They share how he survived those trials and consequences. He writes out where he put his hope, how he trusted God and that he needed a new heart. They speak to us more than the stories because as we go through difficulties, we need practical information of how to get through things.

2 Corinthians 1:4 says, “He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God” (GNT). If you’ve made it through troubled times, think about how you made it through so you can help those who will go through something similar later. If you’re going through hard times now, keep a journal. It may be the key that helps someone else later. Your trials are not without purpose. Yes, they help purify you and strengthen you, but they’re also so that you can help someone else later. God helps us through difficult times, but there are practical things you’re doing or have done that other will need to know. Don’t get stuck without an answer like I was. Be prepared to help with a roadmap when the time comes.

Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash

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September 8, 2020 · 5:58 AM

Making Disciples

For more than a decade I have been a corporate trainer. Companies hire me to help change behaviors, change results, increase productivity, to understand new concepts and to change culture. Training has that ability because it addresses the behaviors that change results. Studies have shown that untrained employees take six times longer to understand and perform a task than ones who receive training. During that time, an employee can get frustrated and leave. Also, if a company doesn’t train en employee, the employees don’t feel valued. If the co any isn’t willing to invest in their future and their success, why should they stay? Training is a very important part in helping people reach their potential.

I tell you all of that because I read the Great Commission with new eyes. Look carefully at what it says. Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (AMP). He didn’t say, “Go therefore and make Christians.” He didn’t even say, “Go therefore and make Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Charismatics or whichever denomination you belong to.” He said, “Go therefore and make disciples.” A disciple is a student that needs to be trained. Jesus asked us to make disciples instead of Christians because you and I have the ability to teach and to train, but we do not have the ability to save. Only He does.

He asked us to help them to learn of Him. In order to do this, you must know about Jesus and read the Bible yourself. A teacher or trainer has to know and understand the material before they teach the pupil. Jesus next told us to teach people how to believe in Him. Your testimony is vital in this part of making a disciple. If you’ve accepted Jesus, your life has been changed. Share with others how it has changed so they can believe. Finally, He said train them on how to obey His words. Application is key to any training. Disciples need to understand how to apply God’s Word. Showing someone how to apply a principle changes behaviors that in turn change results. We’re called to change this world through making disciples who can then repeat this process. Who are you discipling right now? We’re all part of the Great Commission and have a responsibility to make disciples.

Photo by Sarah Noltner on Unsplash

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September 7, 2020 · 5:40 AM

Holy, Flawless and Restored

We are own worst critics. Like me, you can probably point to everything that’s wrong with you.we know our own faults and failures. We know why God should never use us. To demonstrate this, I used to do a lesson with a group of teenagers I taught at church. I would take a piece of plain white paper, scribble in the middle of it and ask what they saw. Like clockwork, they treated it like a blob test. They called out everything under the sun of what they thought they saw. I then asked why no one said, “A paper,” or “A lot of unused space.” We tend to focus on the mess ups instead of the whole, then we disqualify ourselves. In fact, you probably just thought, “But you don’t know how bad I’ve messed up.” You’re right, I don’t, but then again, it doesn’t matter when it’s been forgiven.

When I read the Bible, I love to look at the heroes of faith. There are many people I’ve idolized in the Bible and wished I was more like them. I wish I had the same heart as David, and his courage too. I wish I had the boldness of Paul along with his tenacity. I look at Peter and wonder if I would have had the faith to get out of the boat. On and on it goes, but when I really examine their lives, I find that the heroes of the faith have messed up more than I ever have so far. David committed adultery and killed her husband to cover it up, yet God still kept him on the throne and used him. Paul spent a lifetime killing Christians before he became one. Jesus once called Peter, “Satan” because of his attitude. The list goes on as you look at all these great leaders. If they weren’t disqualified, then neither are we.

The reason is that when God looks at us, He doesn’t see our past sins like we do. Instead, He sees His Son. Colossians 1:22 says, “And now there is nothing between you and Father God, for he sees you as holy, flawless, and restored” (TPT). When God has forgiven you, He restores you. He makes you holy even though you don’t feel holy. In His eyes, you are flawless because you are covered by the righteousness of His Son. There is no sin you’ve ever committed that is stronger than His blood, so there is nothing you have done that will ever make Him see you other than holy, flawless and restored. It’s time we began to change the focus of how we see ourselves so that we begin to see what God sees when we look in the mirror. Look at yourself and say, “Through Jesus, I am holy, flawless and restored.” Say it over and over until you believe it because God already does.

Photo by Fares Hamouche on Unsplash

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September 4, 2020 · 5:58 AM

Change Your Expectations

From the time my son was born, he has been allergic to milk, gluten and eggs. The problem was that we didn’t know it. For years he would hold his ears in the bathroom because a flushing toilet made him scream. At restaurants, we had to eat while watching for if the servers were gathering to sing happy birthday because that would make him cry and scream. Then a couple of years ago, my wife’s uncle asked if we liked living that way. Assuring him we didn’t, he asked for our son, laid hands on him and prayed for healing. After the prayer, my son asked if he was healed. We asked him if he thought he was. He said yes. We then asked for a glass of milk. He drank the milk and proclaimed he was healed. Either we expected God to heal him or we didn’t. Giving him milk said we trusted God for the healing.

Faith is about expectations. What do you expect God to do? Do you expect to hear from God? Are you expecting the miracle you need? I’ve always heard that expectations determine outcomes. When Jesus healed people, He would ask them to go show themselves to the priest. When Namaan needed healing, he had to dip seven times. On the sixth he still had leprosy, but he dipped the seventh. We need to pray with expectation. We need to read God’s Word with expectation. We need to go to church with expectation. Our faith produces little because we’re expecting little. Change your expectations and you will change your life.

By the way, we had my son get an allergy test that showed he was off the charts allergic to milk, gluten and eggs. After we prayed and gave him milk, we took him to be tested again. All three showed up at zero allergies.

Here are some Bible verses on expecting from God.

1. Be strong and let your hearts take courage, All you who wait for and confidently expect the LORD.

Psalms 31:24 AMP

2. Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up. Expect GOD to get here soon.

Psalm 31:24 MSG

3. Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1 GW

4. Wait for and confidently expect the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the LORD.

Psalms 27:14 AMP

5. Then Jesus put his hands over their eyes and said, “You will have what your faith expects!”

Matthew 9:29 TPT

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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September 3, 2020 · 5:30 AM

Defeating Your Past

Do you ever feel like your faults, failures and past sins disqualify you from being used by God? Sometimes those voices that tell me those things get so overpowering that I start to believe it. My past comes back to remind me to stay grounded while God has called me to fly. They weigh me down like I’m attached to an anchor. They tell me, “Because you did this, God can never do that in your life.” It’s hard to hear anything else sometimes.

When those voices get too loud in my mind, there’s two verses I go back to. The first one is Psalm 65:3. It says, “Our faults defeat us, but you forgive them” (GNT). I use this verse to remind me that my past has been forgiven, and that there is no condemnation for those in Christ. The voices that tell me what God can’t do are not from God. When He forgives, He forgets. He uses those faults and failures as my qualifications to do what He called me to do.

The other verse I go to is Romans 11:29. It says, “For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn” (NLT). No matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, God still has a plan for your life. He still has a calling that only you can fulfill. He knew your future when He called you. He understood that you wouldn’t be able to live a perfect life so He built it into the plan for you. He doesn’t withdrawal His calling because of our past.

It’s easy to look at someone else and think, “They’re better qualified to do what I’m called to do,” but that’s not how God works. He created you with a purpose and a calling that only you can fulfill. It’s time to quit listening to the voices that tell us we can’t, and start listening to the only voice that matters. It’s not too late. You haven’t gone too far. God’s calling is still valid and you have work to do. Push out the voices that tell you why you can’t, and tell God, “Here am I. Use me.” God hasn’t withdrawn His calling it purpose from your life.

Photo by Ivan Pergasi on Unsplash

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

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