Tag Archives: christian living

February 3, 2020 · 5:58 AM

Owning Your Growth

From the very beginning of the Bible, we learn that God is a gardener. It says in Genesis that He planted a garden in the middle of creation. He didn’t simply speak it into existence like everything else. He took the time to plan and decide where He would plant each tree. He carved rivers around it to water it so that it would remain fertile. He walked in it every evening to enjoy it and to care for it. Then He placed Adam in there to be its caretaker. I think growth occurred naturally in that time because when Adam and Eve were removed from the garden, God told them that from now on they would have to sweat to get growth. There would be thistles and other things that would compete for the resources that he would grave to remove in order to achieve optimum growth. It then says that Adam began to cultivate the ground as soon as they left the garden.

God put the desire to create growth in each one of us. Some of us grow gardens. Some of grow families. Some money. In any case, if you look at your life, you’re spending a considerable amount of energy trying to achieve growth somewhere in something. Where we focus our time and energy is really what’s important to us since time and energy are our most precious commodities. What is it that you’re trying to grow? Will it matter for eternity? Is it only for your benefit? Each of us have to look at our lives to see if we’re growing the right things, and if we are doing the right things to create that growth.

2 Peter 3:18 says, “But continue to grow and increase in God’s grace and intimacy with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” (TPT). Growth in maturity of our faith is required of each of us. Your Faith is not your pastor’s garden to tend. It’s yours. This message was from Peter, who was the head of the Church at the time. He was telling believers everywhere to own their growth. What are you doing daily to own your own growth? We must make sure we’re watering our lives with God’s Word. We have to pull the weeds of doubt constantly. We need to have a plan for the areas we need to grown in. If you’re going to own your growth, you’re going to have to start cultivating new ground in your faith and do the work of a gardener. Your pastor can give you the tools, but you must do the daily work.

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January 30, 2020 · 5:40 AM

A Change Of Clothes

I can easily recall several times in my life when my clothes were so filthy I couldn’t wear them inside. I was playing in the woods as a kid once, and I found a bucket of tar. I popped the lid off and had a lot of fun…until I got home! When I was 16, I got a job washing garbage trucks. Yes, they wash them each night like you wash your car. My clothes were so nasty, I had to ride in the back of the truck and change out of them in the garage. Also, when I was 20 years old, I visited a church in Garbage City, Cairo, Egypt. My clothes smelled so putrid that it made people sick to smell them.

Why am I telling you this? It’s because spiritually we wear clothes very similar to each of those situations. Isaiah 64:6 says, “We’re all sin-infected, sin contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags” (MSG). The Amplified Version calls them “polluted garments”. Our efforts to be good in order to get to Heaven look and smell like the clothes I was wearing on those days. Our efforts will never change our spiritual clothes. That’s something only God can do.

Zechariah had a vision of Joshua, the priest and leader of Israel. He was standing in Heaven before God and Satan was there to accuse him. Zechariah describes it this way in chapter 3 verses 3 and 4, “Joshua was standing there, wearing filthy clothes. The angel said to his heavenly attendants, ‘Take away the filthy clothes this man is wearing.’ Then he said to Joshua, ‘I have taken away your sin and will give you new clothes to wear’” (GNT). Where our works create filthy rags, God’s work clothes us in righteousness.

Isaiah 61:10 says, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels” (NLT). It is God who dresses us. It is God who does the work of salvation. We simply need to present ourselves to Him, recognizing our clothes are filthy, and ask Him to change our spiritual clothes. God can take our putrid, sin stained clothes and exchange them for His righteousness. We will then be able to approach His throne of grace with all boldness clothed in righteousness.

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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.

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January 29, 2020 · 5:59 AM

Owning Your Maturity

When my son was a new born, my wife and I decided we didn’t want him to learn the behavior of crying for what he wanted. That started with the very first thing that babies learn to cry for – milk. We began to pay attention to his movements and sounds around feeding times so we could anticipate when he was hungry. As we noticed them, we would begin to warm up some milk and feed him. However, there were times when we were busy and missed his cues. In those moments, he would let us know he was hungry and ready for milk through his only means of communication- crying. The best part was when he began to hold his own bottle. Later, we was able to crawl to the bottle when he was hungry and began the maturation process of feeding himself.

As Christians, we go through a maturity process as well. When we first accept Jesus as our savior, we are merely spiritual infants. We need the milk of God’s Word to help us grow. We need to learn simple concepts that are easily digestible. As we mature, we should graduate to more difficult concepts and spiritual disciplines. Just like a baby, there is a transformation that takes place in our lives. Our inner faith should grow as we mature and learn how to reconcile our inward faith with our public life. As we drink the milk of God’s Word, it begins to change how we live so that our lives become more Christ like.

1 Peter 2:2 says, “In the same way that nursing infants cry for milk, you must intensely crave the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word. For this “milk” will cause you to grow into maturity, fully nourished and strong for life” (TPT). Each of us need to own our own maturation process. It’s not the responsibility of the church to grow us. We must intensely crave spiritual food Monday through Saturday and learn to feed ourselves. Reading God’s Word daily puts food into our spirit. Meditating on verses is like the chewing process. It breaks it down and releases nutrients that are vital to your growth. Wherever you are in your maturation process, there’s always room for more growth that fully nourishes your soul and leads you into a stronger spiritual life.

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January 28, 2020 · 5:49 AM

Yielding To God

One of the questions I like to ask groups is, “What motivates you more, pain or pleasure?” Honestly, the rooms are usually split on the question until I probe deeper. To those who say pleasure, I ask, “Why are you not on a beach somewhere right now?” It’s because the have to work right now. Then why not leave? It’s because the pain of losing their job keeps them from walking out and going to something pleasurable. Pain, or the threat of pain, is a far greater motivator than pleasure in our lives. That’s why since the beginning of time parents have used it to motivate their kids to obey through pain or threat of pain. Even God, our Heavenly Father, uses pain to motivate us and develop character in us.

Years ago I took an about face in my faith. I professed Jesus with my mouth, but my life was anything but living for Him. God tried the gentle whisper and conviction of the Holy Spirit to warn me to turn back around, but I failed to listen. As time went on, I started going through painful experiences, one after another, as God was trying to get my attention. He kept going until I couldn’t take it anymore and finally said, “Ok, God, you win. I give up.” Even though I turned back around, I still lived with the consequences of that period of my life, but God used them to develop character in me that was missing. He fundamentally reshaped me through the pain of that time. Like a good parent, He didn’t give up. His love kept coming after me and doing whatever it took to bring me back.

Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now all discipline seems to be more pain than pleasure at the time, yet later it will produce a transformation of character, bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who yield to it” (TPT). It’s only when we yield that He can create the transformation in us. As long as we’re fighting and running from His purpose or calling on our life, He will do whatever it takes to bring us home so we can fulfill our purpose. Thank God He doesn’t stop chasing after us no matter how far we go. It’s a good thing, though it doesn’t seem like it at the time, that He will do whatever it takes to get your attention. I was pretty stubborn, but I’ve learned that the sooner we yield, the faster we see the harvest of His work in our lives.

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January 27, 2020 · 5:59 AM

Faith Over Fear

Several years ago I was in charge of a fundraiser for a mission trip at our church. We had someone volunteer to make brisket for us, so we sold tickets ahead of the event. After we got the final number of tickets in, the man cooking the brisket gave me the shopping list including how much brisket. As I was buying the brisket, I believed we would sell more brisket than we had sold tickets for. When I got to the counter to order the briskets, I asked for an additional case. If you’re unfamiliar with that, it’s about 60 lbs of more meat that we would need to sell. Many people who bought tickets failed to show up for their meat though. We had a ton left over so I asked the pastor if we could sell after church. My wife looked at all the meat and said, “I hope God honors your faith because I don’t see how we can sell all of this.”

As Christians, we must daily choose whether we’re going to let fear hold us back or let faith guide us. There are so many decisions we have to make, some with long lasting effects. We can shrink back in fear of the unknown or we can step out in trust of what God will do. Hebrews 10:38 says that God is not happy with those who let fear hold them back. I don’t want to live a life that doesn’t make my Heavenly Father happy so I choose to live and walk by faith even though it isn’t easy. When you live by faith, you never know for certain if or when God will jump in to help. There are a lot of “God, where are you? Now would be a good time to show up” moments. But, as the psalmist said, “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread (Psalm 37:25).”

I like how Hebrews 10:39 describes the life we’re to live. It says, “But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” (TPT) You and I cannot be people who are held back by fear. We are people who advance by faith. Either we believe what we say or we don’t. Our actions will always be consistent with what we truly believe. I’ve chosen to move forward despite fear. Living by faith doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. It means you chose not to let it hold you back from your God given purpose. Faith takes a deep breath and makes the decision to go forward in spite of the fear in your belly, and God honors that kind of faith.

By the way, all that brisket sold out in a matter of minutes after church and doubled what we had raised through ticket sales.

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January 23, 2020 · 5:45 AM

Habitual Fellowship

A phrase that stands out to me, when reading about great men of faith in the Bible, is they “walked in habitual fellowship with God.” Each time I read that phrase, it calls out to me and dares me to do the same. To walk in habitual fellowship with God is to be in constant communication with Him and to live in a manner that is pleasing to Him. The men in the Bible who did this, found great favor with God.

Noah was one such man. The time period he lived in was like no other. There was no one else on earth who feared God or lived righteously. He had no church to find shelter in. He had no Christian friends who could encourage him and pray for him. He was the lone believer in a sinful world. Imagine your life without the help from your church or Christian friends. Imagine having no one you could go to for prayer when you needed it. How long would you last?

This was Noah’s situation and instead of throwing in the towel, he doubled down on his relationship with God. Genesis 6:9 says, “Noah was a righteous man [one who was just and had right standing with God], blameless in his [evil] generation; Noah walked (lived) [in habitual fellowship] with God” (AMP). If he was the only blameless person and he could walk in habitual fellowship with God, then you and I can too. We can find the strength within ourselves to be in constant communion with God. We can find time to pray and read His Word each day.

Merriam Webster defines “habitual” as, “Doing something regularly or repeatedly.” These men of faith regularly and repeatedly met with God and He rewarded them with favor and by making covenants with them. The God who made covenants with them still wants to make covenants with us. He’s simply waiting for those of us who will dare to enter into a habitual fellowship with Him. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (NLT). If you will fully commit to Him in habitual fellowship, He will give you the strength you need to live for Him every day.

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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.

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January 21, 2020 · 5:59 AM

A Useless Life

Have you ever considered what your epitaph might say? There are some pretty unique ones out there. There are some funny ones like Merv Griffin’s that says, “I will not be right back after this message.” Others are more sentimental expressing love for family. Some denote anger because they felt abandoned in their final days by those they loved. Epitaphs can be as unique as the individual, but one epitaph I have never seen reads, “Here lies a person who lived a useless life.” The truth is that what’s not done for eternity and others is often useless. The last thing I would ever want is to have lived my life only to get to Heaven and find out my life had been useless for God’s Kingdom.

The book of Titus is not a book most of us know well. However, in it Paul gives instructions on the importance of discipleship and teaching others how to live for God. In his closing statements, in Titus 3:14, Paul writes, “Our people must learn to spend their time doing good, in order to provide for real needs; they should not live useless lives” (GNT). One translation says, “unproductive lives.” God’s idea of a productive and useful life is one that helps others find Him, provides for the needs of others and brings people into a mature faith. I know that doesn’t encompass all of it, but Paul’s message to Titus was that he should be doing these things and helping other believers to do them as well.

1 Corinthians 3:13 says, “And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.” That Fire will reveal whether we lived useful or useless lives. Every one of us will stand before Jesus on that day with our lives and the things we did presented to Him as an offering. Will the things you’re doing now survive that fire? We must live our lives with that fire in mind. There’s an old poem by C.T. Studd that reminds us, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” If you haven’t been living with the end in mind, you can start today and still have an offering that will survive that fire and show your life wasn’t useless.

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January 16, 2020 · 5:30 AM

Stand Strong

One of my favorite people in the Bible is Gideon. I’m reminded of his story so often because I find myself in need of all the lessons it teaches. In Judges 6, the Bible explains that times were bad in Israel. The Midianites were destroying crops, killing animals and harassing the Israelites. There wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop them. The Israelites lived in fear because of all the bad things that were happening. If they had grain, they had to thresh it in hiding. If they had goats, they had to keep them hidden. Anything in the open would be taken.

Gideon was threshing his grain in the bottom of a wine press so no one would see him. An angel appeared and called out to him, “Mighty hero, The Lord is with you.” Gideon, who was hiding because he was afraid of the Midianites, didn’t think twice about the angel calling him a hero. What caught his attention was that the angel said, “The Lord is with you.” He took a double take at the angel and must have thought this guy didn’t know much. How could he say that when so many bad things were happening?

He confronted the angel and asked, “If The Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” Have you ever felt that way? When everything in life is going wrong and you feel abandoned by God. It’s an uncomfortable place. A dark place. Fear of the future grips your mind. You find yourself constantly worrying about things that you have no control over. You feel like God has forgotten you or worse, abandoned you in need. Your mind tells you that God doesn’t care. That He doesn’t see you in your pain.

In this verse, the angel reminds us that God’s presence in our lives isn’t proven by our circumstances. Our lives can be falling apart and God can still be with us. We’ve somehow come to believe that God is with us when things are good and has abandoned us when times are bad. His presence is with you no matter what. He is with you even when you can see His hand or feel His presence. He is with you when your life is so dark that you can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. He is not only with you, He’s preparing you for greatness in those times. Greatness doesn’t come from an easy life. It’s forged in the darkness and in the fire.

Whatever you are facing today, I say to you, “Mighty hero, The Lord is with you!” You may not feel like a hero, but you’re still standing through everything. You may not feel like The Lord is with you, but He has never left your side. He has been standing next to you through everything you have faced and everything you will face because He will not abandon you. He will not forsake you. He will not forget you. He will deliver you when the timing is right. He will lead you to better times when you have learned all He wants to show you in the dark. Stand strong today because The Lord is with you.

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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.

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January 14, 2020 · 5:58 AM

Rule #1

If you’ve ever run a race, or at least watched a race, you know that the number one thing you shouldn’t do is look over your shoulder behind you. Why? First, when you look back, it creates wind drag and slows you down. Secondly, it’s hard to run in a straight line if you’re looking back. When you step out of your lane, in most races, it will disqualify you. Thirdly, and I think most importantly, it creates a negative mindset. What is driving you to look back? Fear. You’re afraid that someone else is gaining on you. That mentality distracts you from running your own race. You are no longer running to win. Instead, you are running to avoid losing, and that’s not the purpose of running a race.

In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul uses this same imagery when he compares living the Christian life to running a race. He wrote, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (NLT). Paul is reminding us that we are all in a race, and rule number 1 is to forget the past and don’t look back. The enemy tries to give us a negative mentality that tells us our past disqualifies us from serving God, being used by God or that we are not even worth being used by God. He wants you to think that way so that you will focus behind you on who you were rather than who you are becoming.

His encouragement for us is to press on and to keep our eyes on the prize even though you aren’t going to become the perfect Christian. Not one of us are capable of living this life without sinning or failing God, but we can’t let that keep us from running our race and looking forward. Those words “press on” are intentional. It means we keep going even when things are hard. We keep trusting in God’s grace for our sins and in His strength when we are struggling to advance. Our future is not in our past. It’s in Him, so we need to look ahead and keep our eyes on Him. Our heavenly prize is waiting for us, so we need to take captive every thought that tries to get us to look backwards. Don’t let them get a foothold in your mind. You are destined to win, empowered by His grace and will be victorious through Him.

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January 13, 2020 · 6:02 AM

Revolutionary Love

One of the things that so many people struggle with early on and into marriage is to put their spouse’s needs above their own. From the time we’re born until we’re married, life is about us. We make our decisions based on our needs and wants. We become selfish unknowingly. Part of the process of learning to be married is learning to quit being selfish and to focus on the other person in the relationship as well as who you are as one. Many times it’s hard for people to learn, and instead of learning to put their spouse’s needs ahead of their own, their selfish nature learns how to manipulate their spouse into taking care of their needs. In that situation, it’s hard for love to bloom because only one person’s needs are met. Deep love is the process of putting others ahead of yourself.

Think of what Jesus did. John tells us that creation was made through Him. Philippians tells us that He was equal with God, yet in an act of love, He chose to humble Himself, and become human. While He was here, He didn’t claim the privileges of being the King of Kings. Instead, He didn’t even have a place to lay His head. When they crucified Him, He didn’t call on 10,000 angels to come rescue Him from the cross. Out of love for us, He put our need for salvation ahead of His own needs and endured a humiliating death. He gave us the example of what love is and what love does. Philippians 2:4 says, “Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand” (MSG).

The kind of love Jesus showed is the kind we are to show as His followers. We are to have His mindset. Just like marriage, there’s a process we must go through as believers where we put aside our needs and learn to look outward to the needs of others. Salvation isn’t just about the decision to make Jesus lord of your life. It’s learning to be like Him. It’s leaving your selfish, sinful nature and its thinking behind and adopting the mind and mentality of Christ. WWJD bracelets we’re supposed to help us to remember that, but instead they became a joke. If we truly ran everything we did through the filter of “What would Jesus do,” how would our lives change? Better yet, how would this world change? When Jesus said the world would know us by our love, He was talking about us showing love the way He did. When we learn to love like that, it’ll be revolutionary.

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