September 8, 2014 · 7:31 AM

Trust Equals Action

In Genesis 20, there is a story that many of us are familiar with, but we forget about it. Abraham told King Abimelech that Sarah was his sister and not his wife. At this point, Abraham had already been told by God that he should leave the land he was in and head to the place He would show him and he and Sarah had already been told they would have a son. He had already made his mistake with Hagar and had Ishmael. You would think that he had learned to trust God at this point.

Just like you and I, he still had some room for growth in his trust with God. You would think that a man who heard God speak to him, met with angels, watched Sodom and Gomorrah burn and got a woman pregnant when he was nearly 100 years old would be able to trust God. When you hear what Abraham said to Abimelech in Genesis 20:11, you see that he was afraid that people might kill him and take Sarah. He let fear drive his decision making instead of trusting in God.

I’d get upset with him if I didn’t have the same problem. Too many times I hear God speak to me and I let fear take me on a different path or keep me from acting on what God told me to do. There’s the fear of what others will say. The fear of living by faith. The fear of change. The fear of stepping into the unknown. All of these fears repress my desire to do what God asked me to do. I have a choice to make each time that fear steps in. I can listen to it and allow it to keep me from action or I can listen to God and act on what He said.

If Abraham learned his lesson, I can too. It was just a few chapters later when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Without hesitation, Abraham woke up early and began to act on what God told him to do. He acted on God’s word before fear got a foothold in his mind. If we can learn to act on what God says before we allow fear to take over, we will begin to see the hand of God more in our lives. If we can trust God more than we trust fear, there’s no telling how different our lives would be.

David understood this principle too. In Psalm 56:11, he wrote, “In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” David had wrestled with fear and trust as well. Ultimately, you see that he learned the principle that you and I can adopt. We need to trust God when He asks us to do something. We need to block out fear so that it doesn’t keep us from accomplishing all that God has for us. In the end, it’s God’s opinion of us that matters, not man’s. Act quickly on what God speaks to you before fear has a chance to rear its head and stop you.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

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

September 5, 2014 · 5:37 AM

Made Whole Again

IMG_0089.JPG

It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back from all God has for you. To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy of “Free To Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness” by John Eldredge. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

One of the most well known nursery rhymes in the English language is “Humpty Dumpty”. As you know, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.” I’m guessing Humpty lived out the rest of his days broken or missing pieces. All we know is that he couldn’t be put back together.

When we’ve fallen or have been broken, we are left not feeling whole. A part of us is missing. My wife and I were talking about the grieving process after a divorce where one party left the marriage. It’s very similar to grieving a lost loved one except you still know this person is around. You’ll still see them so you never get closure. You never get put back together again. We feel a similar brokenness when we’ve let down God in a major way. We can feel like there’s no going back and that our soul can’t be put back together again.

Just because all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t seem to out you together again, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. I Thessalonians 5:23 says, “May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it! (MSG)” God can make you whole again. What is impossible for man is possible with God.

While man can’t do put you together by himself, God can work in partnership with men (and women) to help restore you. When someone falls spiritually, scripture says, Galatians 6:1 says, “If anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual should restore him.” God uses us to help that person get back up while He does the mending of the soul. When someone is broken from a divorce, a lost loved one or for some other reason, there are Godly counsellors who help restore you while God finishes the work inside.

There isn’t a person who has ever lived or ever will live whom God cannot restore or put back together again. Even though we feel like we are broken into a million pieces and that we will never be whole again, God is able to do it. That scripture in Thessalonians said that God makes everything holy and whole. He didn’t make exceptions. If you are broken, God can heal you emotionally and spiritually. He can make you holy again no matter what has happened to you or what you’ve done. You simply have to go to Him and ask Him to help. It may take a while, but you can be put back together again,

If you’d like to win “Free To Live” by John Eldredge, then leave a comment on this post or a Facebook post that says you’re broken right now and need prayer or that says you were broken, but now are whole. Tomorrow, September 6th, 2014, I will randomly choose a winner from one of the people who comments today. If you haven’t done so, be sure to sign up to receive these devotions by email and like my Facebook page here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

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

September 4, 2014 · 5:30 AM

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days

I remember when I was in middle school and we had speech competitions. I always thought it was about who could memorize the speech best, but it was really about who could recite them with the best inflections. I remember memorizing “Casey at the Bat” and “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”. Casey struck out and nothing went Alexander’s way. From the moment he got up with gum in his hair until his family had Lima beans for dinner, everything went wrong. At the end of the day, his mom reminded him that everyone has bad days.

She was right, we all have bad days. Sometimes they seem to overshadow any good days that we’ve had. Sometimes it’s just one bad day after another. Before we know it, we can’t remember the last time we saw a ray of sunshine. We begin to lose hope and consider giving up that life will ever get better. Just like seasons, bad times change. They can’t stick around forever. If they begin to feel like it, we need to change what we are doing. People always say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Changing routines, friends, jobs or locations can often get us out of the rut.

When I’ve had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I first turn to Romans 5:3-5. It says, “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! (MSG)”

We need to continue to shout praises to God on the bad days. We need to recognize that God uses those days and circumstances like sandpaper in our lives. He smooths out the rough edges and develops passionate patience in us that makes us strong. God doesn’t leave us feeling shortchanged it says. Those bad days are getting us prepared to receive blessings into our lives that we can’t contain! The NLT says this hope will not lead us to disappointment. Even when everything else has been a disappointment, we can always trust that what God is doing in us and for us never will. Hang in there, God is doing something great.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

September 3, 2014 · 7:38 AM

Choosing A Foundation

When my wife left me for someone else, my business collapsed and I had to file for bankruptcy I struggled emotionally. I was hurt and depressed. People would say to me, “Time heals all wounds.” That isn’t what I wanted to hear because at that point, time felt like my enemy. I couldn’t see 5 or 10 years down the road yo when time would heal my wounds. I was fighting just to make it through a day or a night. Each day seemed to bring more bad news and things were compounding. Time seemed to be against me more than it did to offer healing.

I retreated to a routine to help me cope. I pulled back from people so I couldn’t get hurt. I did everything I could think of to keep my mind busy so it wouldn’t plot my demise or someone else’s. I didn’t want to be alone, but I also didn’t want to have to interact with people. I carried such a heavy weight on my shoulders that I became emotionally, physically and spiritually tired. I got to the point where I just collapsed on the floor and wept. I told God that I couldn’t do it anymore.

At my breaking point, I found mercy and grace. I found that it’s ok to be weak. It’s ok to be broken. It’s ok to hurt. In those feelings were reminders that I was human. I realized that I had done everything in my life in my own strength and in my own power for my own glory. When the flood came in, it washed everything out. I had become the foolish builder that Jesus talked about in Matthew 7:24-27. I had built my life on a foundation of sand and when the storms came, it collapsed like a house of cards.

Looking back, the good news is that it gave me the opportunity to rebuild the way God wanted me to build. I learned to give my pain and problems over to Him. I learned to build a life on a foundation I could count on. I began to spend time looking up God’s promises. I found out what it meant to really trust Him. I began to pick up my life piece by piece. I left behind the pieces that weren’t beneficial to my spiritual health. I quit going to places that hurt more than helped. I stopped hanging out with friends who held me back and found new ones who would lift me up.

Time didn’t heal all my wounds, but it afforded me the ability to rebuild the right way. I’ve still had rain, floods and tornados in my life since that time, but my life hasn’t crumbled like it did before. God’s word has secured me through them. I’ve had to make repairs, but I haven’t had to rebuild because a life that is built on trust in God’s Word will stand through storms. I’m not saying I’m perfect or that life is awesome all the time. I’m saying that I know who to run to in a storm. I know how to board up the windows when a hurricane is coming. I know God personally and have a deeper understanding of His Word because of what I went through.

If you haven’t been hit by a devastating storm yet, there’s still time to check your foundations. There’s still time to get rid of the things that aren’t from God. If you’re in the storm or have been hit, don’t let the enemy tell you it’s over. God is still there willing to share your burdens and will help you rebuild from the ground up. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. I can tell you that with God’s help, you will survive and you will rebuild. Choose the foundation of God’s Word to build your new life on. Before long, time will no longer be your enemy and your life will be put back together the way God wants it.

4 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

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

September 2, 2014 · 7:43 AM

Stay On The Path

I recently took my son on a father / son camping trip with other men from our church. On Saturday morning, several kids started walking down a path and my son wanted to go with them. We were a couple of hundred yards behind them, but caught up about 15 minutes later. We crossed streams, logs and hilly terrain. About 30 minutes into it, one of the boys said, “We should go back the way we came.” I pointed out that we could hear the voices of the others and told him that we were close to the camp.

About 30 minutes later, we still hadn’t reached the camp. We could still hear them, but we seemed to be circling them. I couldn’t find a clear path to get to the camp. After going down a steep hill and finding ourselves at yet another stream to cross, I said, “You’re right. Let’s go back the way we came.” As soon as we turned around, I heard some rustling in the bushes not far away. It was his father who had come to look for him. He took us through some bushes to the path we couldn’t seem to find and led us to camp.

I can tell you from personal experience that I feel the same way on the path God has for me. A lot of times, it feels like I’m going nowhere. It’s long, hilly and has me cross some streams. There are times that I feel like I should be on another path or that I should turn around. The advice I get from others tells me to turn around, yet I can hear the voice of God say, “Continue on this path. I’ll lead you to where I’m taking you.” I keep going even though I can’t see where I’m going.

If you’re there with me, I want to share a scripture with you out of Deuteronomy 5. Verse 33 says, “Stay on the path that The Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.” If God has put you on a path, don’t let your mind or others tell you to get off of it. I know you may not see the end of it or where it’s going. It may be through some tough terrain, but God has you on that path for a reason. You will get to where He’s leading you when He wants you to get there. You will gain the experience He needs you to have as you follow the path.

In the end, He’s leading you to your promised land. He’s leading you to a place where you will flourish. God has a plan for your life and for the path that He has placed you on. He didn’t promise it would be easy. He promised that He wouldn’t leave you. He didn’t say that there wouldn’t be times where you wanted to give up. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to comfort you. He didn’t say you’d always know what was next. He said that His Word would be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Stay on the path God put you on and trust Him to get you where He wants you.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

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

September 1, 2014 · 7:31 AM

10 Scriptures About Rest

1. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. (Genesis 2:2 NLT)

2. So leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace. (Job 14:6 NLT)

3. Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalms 91:1 NLT)

4. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. (Psalms 23:2 NLT)

5. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (Matthew 11:28 AMP)

6. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. ” (Hebrews 4:7a NLT)

7. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones. (Psalms 127:2 NLT)

8. For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.” (Jeremiah 31:25 NLT)

9. For they gave me respite from labor and rested me and refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Deeply appreciate and thoroughly know and fully recognize such men. (1 Corinthians 16:18 AMP)

10. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. (Hebrews 4:10 NLT)

Enjoy your Labor Day. I hope you get a well deserved break and get to rest.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

August 29, 2014 · 5:15 AM

The Chair

IMG_0088.PNG

It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back from all God has for you. To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy of “Faith: Back To The Basics” by Tracy M. Sumner. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

I had a friend who took a philosophy class in college. For her final, the professor put a wooden chair on a table and said, “Prove this chair exists.” She sat there wondering what to write. She could see the chair with her eyes, but that wasn’t good enough. She could hear it as it slide onto the table, but that wouldn’t prove it. She could touch it, but he wanted verifiable data. She got close enough to smell the pine wood that it was made from, but that still didn’t prove anything. If she had licked it, she could have tasted the varnish on it, but even that wouldn’t do it. She finally wrote on her paper, “What chair?”

My friend couldn’t prove that chair existed because she went about it the wrong way. I would have sat in it. If I had fallen, it wouldn’t have existed. If it had held me up, it would have been proof of its existence. There are people in this world who try to prove God exists by means of their five senses. You can’t do that. You have to trust in Him and act in faith, just like sitting in that chair before you can really know He exists. You have to put Him to the test.

Faith requires more than your five senses. It requires trust and belief. It requires that you act on it. When you start your car, you are acting in faith that all the moving parts under the hood will simultaneously work together to provide power to move you from point A to point B. Your faith gets exercised and strengthened each time you go to turn it on. Our faith in God is very similar. We can’t use our five senses to prove He exists, but we trust and believe it as much as we believe that car will start because He’s proven Himself to us in the past.

Hebrews 11:1 in the Amplified version says, “NOW FAITH is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.” God is not revealed to our senses. He reveals His Spirit to our spirit. He calls out to the deepest part of us. We can choose to ignore it because it can’t be scientifically verified or we can choose to have faith in something we can’t see, but have experienced internally and know to be true.

If God was visible as a being, it wouldn’t require faith to believe He exists. But He isn’t, so it requires faith and that’s what God requires of us. Hebrews 11:6 says, “It is impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.” One version says that he rewards those who seek Him. You can only prove God exists when you put your trust in Him. You will only believe when you let go of your five senses and put your trust in what you can not perceive through them. How do I know? One day I quit asking, “What chair,” and I sat down.

If you’d like to win “Faith: Back To The Basics” by Tracy M. Sumner, then leave a comment on this post of how you’ve found God to be real in your life. Tomorrow, August 30th, 2014, I will randomly choose a winner from one of the people who comments today. If you haven’t done so, be sure to sign up to receive these devotions by email and like my Facebook page here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

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

August 28, 2014 · 7:20 AM

The Signet Ring

IMG_0087.JPG

I’ve come across a few places in the Bible were a signet ring was used. One of the first places was in Genesis when the Pharaoh took off his signet ring and gave it to Joseph. He made him second in command, and gave him all the authority of Pharaoh through that ring. In Esther, the King gave Haman to give him authority to destroy the Jews. The King later took it back and gave it to Mordecai. In the New Testament, we see the father give the ring to the prodigal son when he returned. It was symbolic in saying, “This is still my son. He has my authority to do things in my name.”

In Haggai 2:23, God said to Zerubbabel that He would set him as a signet ring. He said, “I will set you as a signet ring, the sign of my sovereign presence and authority.” The King of Kings basically gave Zerubbabel all His authority. Instead of giving him a ring, He told him, “You are my ring. You are my authority. You are my presence on earth. You bear my mark and will leave my imprint on everything you touch.” It was very significant that God did this.

A signet ring was important. It had the seal of the king engraved on it. With it, he sealed or stamped letters to prove it was his word. It also represented authority. Anyone that the King would give that ring to had his authority. Whatever they said or did, it was as if the King himself had declared it. The ring had executive authority and power. It was not to be taken lightly by anyone who wore it. So I find it interesting that instead of giving Zerubbabel a ring, God said he would be as one.

Let’s fast forward to when Jesus was on earth. He spoke to His disciples in Luke 10:19 and gave them all authority. He in essence gave them His signet ring. Then, just before He ascended in Matthew 28, He reminded them, “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me.” It wasn’t just some of it or most of it. He has all of it. He then sent them out with what’s known as the Great Commission giving them the authority to use His name as their authority.

You and I have been given that authority as followers of Christ. We are His signet ring on this planet. We have the authority of the King, but we don’t always act like it. I believe it’s time we did. If the enemy has come against you, invoke the authority of the name of Jesus. If you need something to accomplish His will, use your God given authority through Jesus. You are a child of the King of Kings. Start acting like it. You shouldn’t live your life with a defeated mindset. You should have a victorious, over coming mindset because that’s what you’ve been given. Go and use your authority wisely today.

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

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

August 27, 2014 · 6:14 AM

A Lover Of God’s Presence

On my last trip to Haiti, our group sang a song by Jesus Culture called “I’m a lover of your presence”. The part in the song that stands out to me says, “I’m a lover of your presence and it’s all I wanna be.” I can still hear our voices calling out into the night sky to God how much we love His presence. It became my prayer then and I still pray it today. I don’t want to live a day without walking in God’s presence. I know it’s possible and that God wants that relationship with us too.

Adam walked in God’s presence each night in the garden. Abraham lived in God’s presence according to genesis 24:40. Enoch also walked daily with God. Moses spent so much time in God’s presence that his face became bright. He had to wear a veil because it was too bright for the people to look at him. David loved God’s presence so much they he wanted to build a house for Him to dwell in. Peter spoke of the times of refreshment that come from the presence of The Lord. The Bible is full of examples of people who spent time in God’s presence.

If they can do it, you and I can do it. You may be thinking, “Yeah, but those were saints and holy men in the Bible. I’m just me.” Each of the people I listed above and the many more that you will find in the Bible who spent time in God’s presence were ordinary, flawed people just like you and me. The difference was that they took time to be in God’s presence each day. They knew they were unworthy of it, but they trusted God’s grace enough to enter His presence.

They knew that when they stood before God, in His presence, even their hidden sins would be exposed. Yet they entered it anyway. Why? Because they knew that the only way to get sin out of their life is to expose it to God. They knew that it was a good thing to get it out. But somehow, our minds think that we shouldn’t enter His presence because of our sins. We use that as an excuse to stay away from His presence. We cannot buy into that lie!

That’s just like people I know who won’t go to the doctor. I ask them why they won’t and they answer, “Because every time I go, they find something wrong.” They see it as a negative thing when a doctor finds something wrong. I see it as a good thing. If there’s something wrong in me, I want to find it quickly and have it dealt with. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Dealing with it does. Being in God’s presence forces us to deal with what’s wrong in our lives. We should want to have Him find what’s wrong so we can get forgiveness and move into a closer relationship with Him. Find time today to spend in His presence.

If you’d like to listen to the song on YouTube, you can click here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

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

August 26, 2014 · 6:17 AM

God’s Hands

I love hidden camera shows. I enjoy watching different people’s reaction to the same event. I think people are more themselves when they don’t know a camera is rolling. Usually when I think of hidden camera shows, it involves doing something funny or messes with the mind of the unsuspecting person. But I saw one recently where a guy used a hidden camera to capture how people treated him disguised as a homeless man asking for money. As you would expect, he was mainly ignored. Some told him to get a job. Then there were those who gave.

What they didn’t know was that he wasn’t homeless and that he had a surprise for them. When they gave, he thanked them, then gave them their money back and then a $20 bill on top of it. It was touching to watch their reactions when he blessed them back. One lady asked, “Why?” He looked at her, smiled and said, “Because you deserve it.” She quickly replied, “No I don’t.” He insisted she take it because he wanted to help out the givers.

It reminded me of Proverbs 3:27. It says, “Never walk away from someone who needs help; your hand is God’s hand for that person (MSG).” I couldn’t help but to think of not just homeless people who have needed my help, but others who have and I walked away with the ability to help, but not the will. So many times God places people in our path to see how we will react when we think no one is watching. We forget that He always watches us and that all we have is his anyway. He’s just looking to see if we are willing to let go of what’s not even ours to give to someone who needs it more than we do.

I’ve learned to ask God each day to show me the people He puts in path that need my help. I’ve started to carry a little cash that I can give if called upon by God. I want to be prepared to be the hand of God to those people God instructs me to give to. If I never plan or prepare to give, it will never happen. If it never happens, I not only miss out on blessings, but the people who were counting on God to meet their needs can begin to lose faith. Our obedience (or disobedience) always has consequences. We can be the reason for hope in the lives of others if only we were willing to look past how things appear on the surface.

In your prayer time today, ask God to show you who needs your help. Ask Him to let you be His hands to someone in need. You may say, “But I’m one of those people in need.” There’s always someone whom you can help. There’s always someone who is worse off than you are. Be willing to be obedient and to help them and watch how God blesses you. When we give sacrificially, God is bound by a promise to open up the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings you can’t contain. Whether you have a little or a lot, it belongs to God anyway. Go be His hands today.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

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