Saturday, January 30, 2010

Blind Faith

Like many others, I daily ask God for direction in my life. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, but suddenly this morning, I began to think of Abram. God called Abram to leave his homeland and his relatives and go. He didn’t know where he was going he just went…blind faith. (Genesis 12:1-5)

Many times events occur in our lives which require blind faith. I firmly believe, without a doubt, God has a plan for each of us and that He constantly has His hand on each of us, and yet from time to time I allow myself to be drawn in to Satan’s snare, by saying, “I don’t understand.” My point is this, God does not require of us that we understand, but He does ask that we put our faith, our trust, in Him…not a little here and there some of the time, but all of it, all of the time.

God Bless!

Friday, January 29, 2010

What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy is a song co-written by Jenny Simmons, lead singer of Addison Road, who recorded the song. I LOVE this song. After all, what do we really KNOW of Holy? Our God is so infinitely powerful we have trouble finding adequate words to describe Him much less truly be able to conceive of all His glory. Exodus 33:18-23 tells of God protecting Moses in the cleft of the rock when God in all His glory passes by Moses on Mount Sinai:
Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen." (NKJV)
The first verse of What do I know of Holy, makes the confession, “I think I made You too small”. As you listen to the verses and the chorus, you see a person growing in the faith and knowledge of our Lord. My favorite part of the song is when the authors reveal, “The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees”.

You can see why I say, “I love this song”. Our God is so great and so powerful and yet we have the tendency to limit the One who all creation knows by name. God has the power to do for us what we cannot imagine is possible for ourselves. God is infinitely powerful and loves each of us with an infinite and deliberate love! AMEN!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Be Still and Know

Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10 (KJV)
This morning I was driving eastward as the sun was rising. As I looked through the naked trees the sun appeared as a big yellow ball sitting on the edge of the horizon with purple-pink clouds hanging above it. When viewing sites such as this, an involuntary smile breaks across my face as I think of the majesty of our God; our Creator and Sustainer. What a wonderful opportunity to contemplate the infinite power of our God; a God who knows us intimately; a God who has plans for us; a God who invites us to not only seek Him but also to find Him; the Creator who holds everything in His hands and from whose eternal love nothing can separate us.
For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, declares the LORD...Jeremiah 29:11-14a (NASB)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 37-39 (NASB)
AMEN!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Be Ready

As Christians we should always be ready to share the Good News of Christ Jesus with others.
But make sure in your hearts that Christ is Lord. Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope you have. Be ready to give the reason for it. But do it gently and with respect. 1 Peter 3:15
Don't be nervous about sharing God's plan of salvation with others; pray and remember the letters, A-B-C:

A- Admit

Admit to God that you are a sinner. Repent, turning away from your sin.

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life." Romans 6:23
B- Believe

Believe that Jesus is God's Son and accept God's gift of forgiveness from sin.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3: 16
C- Confess

Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:9-10, 13

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

More Love Needed!

Recently my heart has been burdened about my love for others. Of course, I find it easy to love my family and friends, but what about all those others? Do I love the people who, for whatever reason, are outside of my comfort zone? More to the point—do I love my neighbor as myself, as I have been commanded to do?

In Matthew 5:46-48, Jesus tells us we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us; and further: "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

It’s clear to me I have a lot of work to do, but I am not discouraged for Jesus tells us,”…with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26b) In his book, Crazy Love, Francis Chan puts it like this:
“The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives.

It is a remarkable cycle: Our prayers for more love result in love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love…
As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and others becomes more natural."
Dear friends, it is a process. Do not be discouraged, for as the author of Hebrews wrote, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 1b-2a). Let us remember to keep our eyes focused upon Jesus!

God bless you!

Monday, January 25, 2010

God You Reign!

Father-God, I praise Your Majesty. I thank You for loving me…for seeking a love relationship with me. Father, I submit to You; I open my heart, my mind, my soul to be completely filled with Your sweet, sweet Spirit; remove the clutter from my life that I may be used for Your purpose. Father I praise You now on earth and I will forever praise You in Glory. Amen.

This morning my daily Bible readings included the well-known verses of Moses and the burning-bush. I realize these verses tell of God’s calling Moses to lead His people out of Egypt and thus the great story begins which runs throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but I have to tell you that my absolute favorite part of the beginning of this great epic is where God declares to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14).

The greatness of this seemingly simple statement of who God is absolutely brings you to your knees in praise and adoration of our great God! “I am” is the present tense form of the verb “to be”, but the significance of the words here, as used in this statement to Moses, defies definition.

Our God is, was, and is to be. He exists, He continues, He is always present, always has been and always will be. God cannot be defined by time for He is the Creator of all things including time. Our God cannot be bound by a timeline…God is always “now”.

Amen!! My God Reigns!!!

God Bless!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Journey of Faith (the reason for this blog)

I hope to be able to share with you some of my thoughts as I walk along the path of faith; things that have been spiritually meaningful to me; that have lifted me up in the hope that you will may find joy in them also.

Even though I accepted Christ as my Savior many years ago, about three years ago I felt very much drawn to recommit my life to Christ and live fully for Him. Having heard the saying garbage in, garbage out, frequently; I decided to put the phrase to practical use in my own life. After all, as human beings, we are natural imitators.

I began to pray more, to read and study my Bible more, etc. I made changes in the music I listened to and the books I read. I now listen to Christian music exclusively and the books I read would fall under the genre of Christian/religious books. I don’t watch a lot of television, but when I do watch, my viewing consist of educational or family-type programming; and the same thing would be true of the movies I watch.

Has this made a difference? Yes it has. I am happier and more satisfied than I have ever been. Why? Because I’m doing what I should have been doing since I became a Christian at age fifteen. As Paul explained it to the Galatians in chapter 2, verse 20 (NASB), I now realize more fully than ever, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

If you are a Christian, pray each day to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be controlled by the Holy Spirit; I promise you it will change your life. If you haven’t accepted Christ, do so today; “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2b, NKJV)”.

Godspeed on your journey and God bless!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

How Great is Our God

Have you seen the images from the Hubble? Amazing! How can anyone look at these images and doubt the existence of an all-powerful Creator? I love reading the Psalm because I love praising God. Take a look at Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV):
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
You see images like the one above; you read these praises and the feeling you have inside your heart is so grand there are no words to adequately express how you feel. It makes you want to shout; to sing; to raise you hands in praise to God.
This is my challenge for you today: When you pray, ask God to open your heart, mind, attitude, and actions to the working of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to come into your heart, to fill you, to control you. Why? So that you may be useful in His service. Dr. Fred Lowery has said that we as Christians exist to tell others of Christ. How true. Are you surrendering your all for God today? Remember...He alone is Worthy.

Hubble images can be found at http://www.hubblesite.org/. You can download images from this site or there are also a variety of items available which contain Hubble images; just query on "hubble".

God Bless!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wisdom in the Word

Three years ago I resolved to read through the entire Bible in a year. "Daily" Bibles are relatively inexpensive, usually softback, and set-up so that you have 365 readings. The daily reading typically contains a couple of chapters from the Old Testament, a few verses from Psalm, a few verses from Proverbs, and a chapter from the New Testament. The daily reading takes about fifteen minutes a day.

I have now read through the Bible twice and have just started reading through the entire Bible for the third time. I am resolved to read the Bible through each year as long as the Lord allows me to draw a breath. This small daily effort has been an enormous blessing in my life.

I LOVE reading the Bible! First of all, it is God's holy word; it is inspirational; it is encouraging and uplifting; it is instructional...it is a lamp that shows me the way and a light that guides me (Psalm 119:105). The Bible tells us we are not to be afraid; we are to "be strong and courageous...for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you He will not fail you or forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)

What's the best part of the Bible for me? I have no idea. I love it all. If you are a Christian, let me encourage you to read your Bible...all of it. Get to know your Lord and Savior more personally through prayer, through Bible study; and through church attendance. Hebrews 10:25 teaches us not to forsake "our own assembling together...encouraging one another". Your life will be enriched and you will become a blessing to others. Remember it is not about you; it is all about Him.

If you are not a Christian; accept Christ today. He is waiting for you; come as you are. Let me invite you to read, "The Romans Road". The Romans Road explains the plan of salvation using verses from the book of Romans, which in the New Testament of the Bible.
Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We have all sinned by doing things which displease God. There is no one who is innocent. (Romans 3:10)

Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 5:8 tells us, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus Christ died for us and His death paid for the price of our sins. Jesus conquered death by arising on the third day. His resurrection proves that God accepted His death as the payment for our sins.

Romans 10:9 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved". Romans 10:13 tells us, "for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Salvation is the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. It is available to anyone who will trust in Jesus Christ. What is the result of salvation? Romans 5:1 tells us, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 8:1 teaches us, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Finally, this precious promise Romans 8:38-39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Would you accept Christ as your Savior today; right now? There are no magic works to recite. Just ask Him, believing from your heart. Only faith in Jesus Christ can provide salvation. Here is an example you may follow, "God, I know that I have sinned against you and am deserving of punishment. But Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in Him I could be forgiven. With your help, I place my trust in You for salvation. Thank You for Your wonderful grace and forgiveness - the gift of eternal life! Amen!"

Godspeed!!