April 18, 2017 · 5:31 AM

Always Working For You


In 2002, Verizon was a brand new company and cell phones were still considered somewhat of a luxury. They were trying to grow their customer base, but their slogan “Join in” wasn’t working. They decided to change it by showing continuous network improvement. To show that, they introduced “Test man”, whose tag line was, “Can you hear me now?” They also changed their slogan to, “We never stop working for you.” Their commitment to working constantly working on their network and improving coverage paid off as they have become the largest provider.

Imagine if you were broken down and needed help in the middle of nowhere. You reach for your cell phone to call for help, but it doesn’t work. When you see you have full coverage, you try again. Instead of connecting you to whoever you’re calling, you get a recorded message that says, “We understand you’re trying to make call, but we only work six days a week. Please try again tomorrow.” How would that make you feel?

Imagine if God worked that way. You have an urgent need where your body breaks down and you need immediate prayer, but God won’t do anything until the next day. That’s what the Pharisees were trying to do to Jesus when they told Him he couldn’t heal on the Sabbath. They didn’t care if someone’s life was in danger. They didn’t even want God to heal on the Sabbath in order to keep it holy. 

In John 5, they were complaining to Jesus about that. In verse 17, He responded, “My Father is always working, and so am I” (NLT). I’m thankful that whenever you or I need something urgently from God, we do t have to wait. We can call out to Him day or night because He’s always working. He hears our prayers and meets our needs. We don’t have to worry that He’s taking the day off. He never stops working for us and for our good.

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April 17, 2017 · 5:33 AM

The Cost Of A Dream


What are you willing to pay to accomplish your dreams? The dreams are free, but seeing them come to fruition isn’t. So many of us freely talk about the dreams God puts in our hearts, but so few are willing to endure what it takes to make them happen. When God gives us a dream, He rarely includes the cost. Once the time comes to start paying for it, many of us walk away from it or question if God really gave it to us.

When Joseph was a teenager, God put a dream in his heart that his brothers would one day bow to him. He didn’t have that great of a relationship with them, so he was excited about it. He told them about it, probably in a flaunting way, and they hated him for it. They threw him in a pit, then sold him as a slave where he was carried off to Egypt. From there, he was falsely accused of rape, thrown in prison and forgotten fir over ten years. 

Through all of that, he kept believing in the dream. We don’t read where he questioned God for his troubles. I believe it was because he thought of it as the price of his dream, and he was willing to pay it. God knew that as a teenager, he wasn’t ready to be second in command of Egypt. He tested him and developed in him the character he would need to make the dream in him a reality. Joseph paid the price for the dream.

Psalm 105:19 says, “Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the LORD tested Joseph’s character” (NLT). If God gave you a dream and everything is going wrong, chances are that He’s testing your character. He’s finding out if you’re willing to pay the price and if you’re ready. Don’t give up because the dream seems so far away. Keep working hard. Keep paying the price. Don’t quit. God is getting you ready for the fulfillment of that dream. The cost is worth it. 

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April 14, 2017 · 5:32 AM

Final Words


Today is the day we traditionally celebrate Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in order to be crucified by the Passover so He could fulfill that feast. He became our Pascal lamb so that we could find salvation and healing. God didn’t withhold from Jesus what was going to happen on Good Friday. He knew what was coming and that means He was very deliberate in the things He said and did.

Today, I want to focus our verses on His final words. I believe they were chosen carefully and given with great urgency. When your time is up, you don’t waste words on trivial things. You focus on what matters and make sure that those around you get any final wisdom or instruction from you. Jesus was no different. His words that Friday were chosen carefully and used to fulfill prophesy as well.

Here are some of Jesus’ final words.

1. Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He replied to him, “It is as you say.”
MARK 15:2 AMP

2. Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father! They don’t know what they are doing.” They divided his clothes among themselves by throwing dice.
Luke 23:34 GNT

3. And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43 NLT

4. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Matthew 27:46 NLT

5. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and [voluntarily] gave up His spirit.
JOHN 19:30 AMP

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April 13, 2017 · 5:45 AM

No Ice Please


When my son was three, he started noticing that my wife orders her Coke at the restaurant with no ice. He asked her why she didn’t want ice and she said, “When you get ice, over time, it dilutes the drink. Plus, with ice, you get less of a drink because of displacement.” He then asked me, “Are you ‘No ice’ or ‘Yes ice’?” I told him, “‘Yes ice’ because I would rather my drink be cold than to have a lot of it.” That seemed to satisfy him, though I’m sure he didn’t understand.

If we imagine our lives as those cups, ourself as the ice, and Jesus as the drink, we can learn a spiritual concept. The more we have of ourselves inside of us, the less we can have of Jesus. If we want more of Him, we have to empty ourselves of selfish desires. The problem is that we prefer the cold, watered down version of Jesus because it’s comfortable to us. All the while, Jesus is asking us to get rid of the ice of self so we can be more like Him.

John the Baptist is one of the greatest examples in the Bible of a ‘No ice’ person. In John 3, his disciples came to Him and said, “Hey, that guy you baptized the other day, and testified that He was the Messiah, is baptizing people down the river and our people are going to Him!” In verse 30, John replied, “He must increase, and I must decrease” (AMP). He understood that his comfort wasn’t the most important thing. Letting Jesus increase was.

The question to each of us is, “Are you ‘No ice’ or ”Yes ice’?” Do you want to be full of Jesus or of yourself? If you want to be full of Jesus, then you must decrease so He can increase in your life. You’ve got to put His desires above your own. You must daily deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23) in order to truly be a ‘No ice’ person. That’s struggle each of us face daily. We could all use a little less ice and a lot more Jesus. 

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April 12, 2017 · 5:29 AM

Humpty Dumpty Revisited


We all know the story of Humpty Dumpty who sat on a wall. We know he had a great fall, and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again. It was a nursery rhyme we learned as a child, but now I want to revisit it as an adult. As I was thinking about as I was thinking of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, this story came to mind. To me, Humpty Dumpty represents mankind.

We had a great fall in the Garden of Eden. For thousands of years we tried to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Everything we tried failed. Nothing we tried could truly put us right with God. We tried giving our crops to Him, our livestock, and even our children. We tried obeying rules that were too difficult to follow, but nothing seemed to work. We got frustrated after trying without results and moved farther away from God.

When all of the King’s men failed, the King sent His son to come put Humpty Dumpty back together again. In John 3, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to as questions. Jesus explained that Humpty Dumpty would have to be born again in order to be put back together, but this confused him. Jesus explained that the King loved the so much that He sent His only son so that whoever believed in Him would have everlasting life.

In verse 17, Jesus said, “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger… He came to help, to put the world right again” (MSG). You see, there is nothing you or I can do to earn our salvation and rebuild our brokenness. Only Jesus can do that. He didn’t come to point out the mess we made. He came to clean it up, but only if we let Him. We have to get out of the way and stop trying to get salvation on our own because that’s why He lived, died, and rise again.

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April 11, 2017 · 5:24 AM

But God Is Still On His Throne


I once knew someone who had an interesting answer for the question, “How are you?” No matter what was going on, after he told you, he would say, “But God is still on His throne.” He could have lost his job, he could have been sick, or was going through a bad time in his life. No matter what it was, he would always add, “But God is still on a His throne,” to the sentence. It was always a peculiar answer to me, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to understand it more.

For him, it was about keeping things in perspective. He could wallow in the negative things happening in his life or he could admit they were happening, and then remind himself and others that God was still in control. He knew that God was aware of what was happening in His life, and that phrase would encourage himself and others when he said it. I’m begging to think he picked it up from King David.

In Psalm 102, David is talking about all the things happening to him. For 11 verses he speaks of wasting away, pain in his body, insomnia, being taunted by others, uncontrollable crying, and being depressed. He speaks of all the things going wrong in his life, then he changes his tune in verse 12. He says, “Yet you, God, are sovereign till, always and ever sovereign” (MSG). He was saying, “But you God are still on your throne.”

It’s a good practice to get into especially if you’re going through a difficult time right now. If things aren’t adding up in your life or happening as quickly as you’d like, remind yourself that God is still on His throne. All is not lost. He is working things out for your good. He will give you the strength to endure as he develops character in you. Nothing has the power to completely overtake you as long as He is on His throne.

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April 10, 2017 · 5:00 AM

A Life Of Integrity


I’ve always heard it said that integrity isn’t what you do in front of others, it’s what you do when no one else is around. Many times we are one person at work, another person at church, another person with our friends, and another person at home. In fact, when doing a DISC personality assessment, we tell people to pick their environment. Some more comprehensive ones actually show you the differences in your personality type between the environments.

When it comes to being a Christian, it’s important that we always live with integrity no matter what environment we are in. We don’t have to pretend that we aren’t human and that we are perfect because we’re not. We can live real lives, admit our struggles, show our brokenness and still live with integrity. It’s by our love that they will know we are His disciples, not by our pretending to be perfect. 

I love the book of Psalms because David, who was a man after God’s own heart, is vulnerable enough to share and show his true self. He was a man of doubts, sins, fears, and worries. I think that’s why so many of us soak up the Psalms and why they resonate with us. David was a man of integrity and didn’t pretend to be anyone other than who he was. He was honest in his prayers and his praise. He was the same man in public and in private.

In Psalm 101:2, he vowed to God, “I will lead a life of integrity in my own home” (NLT). He understood the importance of integrity and knew that it started at home when no one was looking. Each of us can learn from his example. Being a person after God’s own heart isn’t about being perfect. It’s about having integrity, being able to admit it when we’ve sinned, and following after God matter what. If we have integrity at home, it’ll bleed into all the other areas of our lives. 

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April 7, 2017 · 5:38 AM

Being A Child Of God


I was in the Sixth grade when I first read, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches” (Proverbs 22:1). I remember pondering that Scripture and thinking about what it meant and how important it was to have a good name. As I thought about it, I realized that I had been given a good name from my parents. My dad had received it from his parents as well. It became important to me to not mess up a name that had been good for at least two generations. I now have a child of my own who has taken my name. I’m trying to make sure he is raised in a way that protects that name. 

In the same way, when we accept Christ into our hearts, we are reborn and adopted into God’s family. We become children of God and take on His name, CHRISTians. I believe it’s up to each one of us to protect that name and to make sure it’s a good name. To some people, you may be the only Christian they’ll meet. It’s important that we live up to the good name that He gave us as His children. We do that by living out our faith, not for our glory, but for His name’s sake.

Here are some verses on being a child of God with His name.

1. But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name.
JOHN 1:12 AMP

2. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:14-15 NLT

3. Those who are children of God do not continue to sin, for God’s very nature is in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin.
1 John 3:9 GNT

4. For you [who are born-again have been reborn from above–spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified and] are all children of God [set apart for His purpose with full rights and privileges] through faith in Christ Jesus.
GALATIANS 3:26 AMP

5. And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:6 NLT

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April 6, 2017 · 5:27 AM

Stained Glass Life


Have you ever been in a church with stained glass windows on a sunny day? They are so beautiful. I love seeing them in churches especially when the glass tells a story. They will often have pictures of the disciples or the heroes of the faith in their time of need. When the light shines through, the room lights up with all the beautiful colors and you see the detail in the art. It’s amazing. I’ve had the privilege of seeing some of the most beautiful stained glass windows in Europe including Notre Dame and Westminster Abbey.

I’ve never made a stained glass window, but I’ve looked up the process. It takes a lot of time and preparation. Once you have the design of what you want your art to look like, you then have to determine what colors and shapes it will take to make it the most beautiful. That’s when the process really begins. You then take glass, score it and break each piece. Until it is broken, it cannot become as beautiful as it can be. It’s in the brokenness that it can be put together with the other pieces to create the masterpiece that is planned.

Once the pieces are broken, they’re then arranged on a marble slab. The pieces are then soldered together with foil. The soldering process is time consuming. It requires that the pieces of glass undergo intense heat and pressure. It may also require more breaking so that the pieces fit together better. It can be a while before you really start to see the progress of what’s happening and it’s not until it is held up and the light shines through it that it’s beauty is revealed.

Our lives are a lot like stained glass windows. God has a beautiful design and plan for each one of us. He sees all the individual pieces that make up our lives, and He knows that it’s not until we are broken in the right places that He can make something beautiful of our lives. We typically look at the broken pieces of our life and see a mess. We feel the pains of being broken. He looks at them and sees His art. He sees how each broken piece of our life will fit together to create the story of our life.

It takes time, pressure and intense heat to put all of our broken pieces together. We try to crawl off the slab because the process is more than we can bear at times, but if we trust Him, He will be faithful to complete the good work He began in us (Philippians 1:6). Once the process is complete, it’s not until we let His light shine through us that our true beauty is shown. It’s when we let others see the story of how God took a broken life and made something beautiful out of it, that others begin to appreciate what He’s doing in their life. 

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April 5, 2017 · 5:40 AM

Your Strength Is Enough


The story of Gideon has got to be one of my favorites in the Bible. In Judges 6, Israel was being tormented by the Midianites. When they planted crops, the Midianites would come camp on top of them to destroy them. If they had cattle or sheep grazing, the Midianites would steal them. It says the Midianites would show up in numbers too high to count. The Israelites were in fear and had hiding places in the caves and mountains to get away from them. It was a dark time for Israel. 

Gideon was threshing wheat hidden from sight when an angel showed up. He greets Gideon in verse 12 with, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” (NLT) Gideon then questions how the Lord could be with Israel in this time of suffering. He even goes as far as saying that the Lord has abandoned them. The angel calmly replies, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” Just like that, Gideon received his calling.

What sticks out to me in this verse is that Gideon was told to fight these people, who were too numerous to count, with his own strength. God wasn’t offering supernatural strength, just the promise that He was with him and that he was called to do it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed for God to give me supernatural abilities to fulfill my calling. I don’t see myself as able to do what He’s called me to do in my own abilities, but this story gives me hope.

I feel like a kid who’s scared even they first learn to ride a bike without training wheels, tThe parent holds the back seat and says, “You can do this. I’m with you holding the seat.” That’s the image I get from this story. God was telling Gideon, and us that we can do what He’s asked us to do in our own strength because He’s back there holding the seat running with us. It’s up to us to pedal in our own strength.

Whatever God has called you to do, He’s equipped you to do in your own strength. It may seem, impossible, but because He has called and is with you, it is possible. Don’t look at the task ahead. Look at the One holding the seat and trust Him to fulfill His promise through you. You are more capable than you think. You are more qualified than you believe. You are stronger than you know. Don’t be afraid to walk in your calling. The Lord has sent you.

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