We are currently living in a society that expects nothing to happen.
What happens happens becuase "we" told it to, or it was a result of something we humans have done. Satan is using this belief and our lack of faith to gain grounds in our culture and our personal lives.
Satan takes hold of our weaknesses and makes them his stronghold. He is gaining ground and movement because we no longer show through our lives or faith that we believe in an all-powerful God. If we did we would be reminded daily to expect miracles instead of merely "hoping" that they "might" happen.
We have stopped training our eyes to even see the miracles of God everyday because our little faith is slowly waning. Times of challenge arise and we begin to cry our to God to do something while fully believing in our hearts that He will not. That is a lack of faith.
James 5: 14-18;
"Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
Ephesians 6:10-20;
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel lf peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, whihc is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully, hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."
These verses encourage us how we are to live, and that is in full faith of God, praying for everything, holding fast to what we know to be true, equipping ourselves for the battle that Satan is waging, and abstaining from the sin that so easily entangles us.
10.28.2009
10.22.2009
Completely Just- and Mighty to Save.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
Jerusalem did not have the best of track records as far as faithfulness to God went. Early on in the book of Zephaniah, Jerusalem was being warned of their near destruction. The prophet is warning Judah that they will be punished for their unfaithfulness and as long as they continue to walk in disobedience they will be destroyed. "Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled! She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God."
Our Lord is a jealous God. His jealous anger is purifying and consuming. When different items take up residence in our lives, He knows and He wants us for himself. His righteousness reveals my unworthiness before him, and shows me areas where I need to be made new before Him.
What I find most encouraging is the end of Zephaniah where the prophet talks about a remnant of people who confess and find themselves holy and repentant before the Lord. Here the prophet promises, "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. he will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
May we be a repentant people. May we realize where we need to be changed and reformed and how we need to change so that we can stand before a holy God, because His promises are comforting and full of hope. God is mighty to save. He takes delight in us! He quiets us with His love, and rejoices over us with singing. I don't know about you but I would LOVE to hear God's voice singing over me!! :) Press on and walk in Faithfulness!
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
Jerusalem did not have the best of track records as far as faithfulness to God went. Early on in the book of Zephaniah, Jerusalem was being warned of their near destruction. The prophet is warning Judah that they will be punished for their unfaithfulness and as long as they continue to walk in disobedience they will be destroyed. "Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled! She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God."
Our Lord is a jealous God. His jealous anger is purifying and consuming. When different items take up residence in our lives, He knows and He wants us for himself. His righteousness reveals my unworthiness before him, and shows me areas where I need to be made new before Him.
What I find most encouraging is the end of Zephaniah where the prophet talks about a remnant of people who confess and find themselves holy and repentant before the Lord. Here the prophet promises, "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. he will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
May we be a repentant people. May we realize where we need to be changed and reformed and how we need to change so that we can stand before a holy God, because His promises are comforting and full of hope. God is mighty to save. He takes delight in us! He quiets us with His love, and rejoices over us with singing. I don't know about you but I would LOVE to hear God's voice singing over me!! :) Press on and walk in Faithfulness!
10.16.2009
To Choose Belief
"So, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways'. So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'"
(Hebrews 3:7-11)
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first."
(Hebrews 3:12-14)
Faith. Being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you do not see. Do you find anything in that phrase that sounds contradictory? "Certain of what you Do Not See." sticks out to me.
As a first notion, it sounds ridiculous to believe in something that you can't see. Questions arise such as, how do you know if it's real? Can it be proven? Do I have to be certain? The truth is that there are things all around us that require our faith to believe in. We believe in faith that when someone opens their mouth to tell us something that it is truth. We believe that the sun still exists even when it is no longer shining.
God challenges us to believe and place our faith in Him, the living God. Unbelief is something that I have been battling with. When you place your trust in something and one day it seems non-existent...you can't grasp it, you can't hear it, or manage to recognize it's presence; it's hard to continue to have faith that it is still there. That's where I have been. But then I read God's word to me, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." It may not have been a sign emanating from the sky or a flash of lightning from God revealing Himself to me, yet it was God. Choose whether or not you will act in obedience and believe, or if you will disobey and willingly walk further from Him.
(Hebrews 3:7-11)
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first."
(Hebrews 3:12-14)
Faith. Being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you do not see. Do you find anything in that phrase that sounds contradictory? "Certain of what you Do Not See." sticks out to me.
As a first notion, it sounds ridiculous to believe in something that you can't see. Questions arise such as, how do you know if it's real? Can it be proven? Do I have to be certain? The truth is that there are things all around us that require our faith to believe in. We believe in faith that when someone opens their mouth to tell us something that it is truth. We believe that the sun still exists even when it is no longer shining.
God challenges us to believe and place our faith in Him, the living God. Unbelief is something that I have been battling with. When you place your trust in something and one day it seems non-existent...you can't grasp it, you can't hear it, or manage to recognize it's presence; it's hard to continue to have faith that it is still there. That's where I have been. But then I read God's word to me, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." It may not have been a sign emanating from the sky or a flash of lightning from God revealing Himself to me, yet it was God. Choose whether or not you will act in obedience and believe, or if you will disobey and willingly walk further from Him.
10.10.2009
Developing Faith...
"Jesus is so much more than a logical proof. His life is the starting point of where ours actually begins." -pg 20 UnChristian by David Kinnaman
Abram.
A man best known for his faithfulness. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I think about those known for having great faith I seem to elevate them in my mind. They are the individuals that my heart longs to be but my reason pulls back into line. Yet, this morning I was reading in Genesis about Abram and after God had called him away from his homeland, he landed himself in Egypt. There Abram's faith was tested, and he actually failed pretty badly.
Sarai, his wife was very beautiful and Abram knew that the Pharaoh would want to take her into his harem of women. If he knew that they were married, Abram was basically a dead man (so he thought). So Abram lied and said she was his sister. Where was his great faith then? Pharaoh was not a dumb man however, and when his household began to experience plagues he knew that something was up. It didn't take him long to figure out that Abram's God was punishing him so he banished Abram and Sarai.
Abram's servants probably had it good in Egypt. They had come to a land of plenty and thrived there until Abram unwisely made a decision on his own without consulting God. In their eyes his integrity was probably put to question.
But Abram didn't stop listening to God after he failed that time to trust that God his hand in the situation. The next story we read is of Abram and his nephew Lot needing to split up....
"So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel an Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not support them while they stayed together. And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites an Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brother. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left."
Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company. Abram lived int eh land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord."
Do you remember the scene in Finding Nemo where Dory and Marlin come upon the dark dike and they have the choice of going through or swimming over? Dory knew that for some reason they were supposed to swim through, but due to her short memory she could not remember why. Marlin looked at both choices and for him it was a no-brainer; swim over top- it looked much less ominous. Little did Marlin know that his lack of trust in his friend would get them both in very dangerous situation with hundreds of jellyfish. He trusted in his instinct over trusting in a friend.
When Abram and Lot were looking at the lands, there was one that looked much more fertile then the next. Abram had been promised by God that He would take care of him and all he had to do was have faith. Earlier in Egypt Abram had looked at the circumstances and used his own instinct to determine his actions. I'm sure that this situation was tempting to do the same in. Lot and him needed to split up; there was not room for the both of them. If God said that Abram was going to prosper than he would need a fertile land to live on, so shouldn't he have chosen the fertile land right away?
Abram's integrity probably was significantly lowered in the eyes of his servants after the incident in Egypt. Allowing Lot to choose the land first might have been a thoughtful gesture, but probably wasn't too reassuring for his servants. But this time Abram chose to trust that no matter what choice befell him, God would be with him and take care of him. Consequently, Abram drew what seemed to be the short end of the stick. However, after he allowed Lot to choose first, God blessed him and said, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
What is encouraging to me about this story is Abram's developing faith. He initially had messed up and allowed his distrust of God to direct his actions, but he learned from his mistake and the next time, even though it was tempting to assume that God had the fertile land waiting for him, he decided to allow his brother-in-law choose and trust that God had Abram's best interest in mind no matter what the outcome.
I pray that we all would have a developing faith. We are going to have times where we don't trust God in the way that we should, and God will be disappointed with us. But that is not how he wants us to live our lives. He wants us to develop in our trust of him. He has a purpose, plan, and future for us. (Jeremiah 29:11)
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1) "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made is home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:9-10)
God is building a foundation and future for each of us. Trust. Have a developing faith in Him. Wait and watch Him work in incredible ways in your lives.
Abram.
A man best known for his faithfulness. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I think about those known for having great faith I seem to elevate them in my mind. They are the individuals that my heart longs to be but my reason pulls back into line. Yet, this morning I was reading in Genesis about Abram and after God had called him away from his homeland, he landed himself in Egypt. There Abram's faith was tested, and he actually failed pretty badly.
Sarai, his wife was very beautiful and Abram knew that the Pharaoh would want to take her into his harem of women. If he knew that they were married, Abram was basically a dead man (so he thought). So Abram lied and said she was his sister. Where was his great faith then? Pharaoh was not a dumb man however, and when his household began to experience plagues he knew that something was up. It didn't take him long to figure out that Abram's God was punishing him so he banished Abram and Sarai.
Abram's servants probably had it good in Egypt. They had come to a land of plenty and thrived there until Abram unwisely made a decision on his own without consulting God. In their eyes his integrity was probably put to question.
But Abram didn't stop listening to God after he failed that time to trust that God his hand in the situation. The next story we read is of Abram and his nephew Lot needing to split up....
"So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel an Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not support them while they stayed together. And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites an Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brother. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left."
Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company. Abram lived int eh land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord."
Do you remember the scene in Finding Nemo where Dory and Marlin come upon the dark dike and they have the choice of going through or swimming over? Dory knew that for some reason they were supposed to swim through, but due to her short memory she could not remember why. Marlin looked at both choices and for him it was a no-brainer; swim over top- it looked much less ominous. Little did Marlin know that his lack of trust in his friend would get them both in very dangerous situation with hundreds of jellyfish. He trusted in his instinct over trusting in a friend.
When Abram and Lot were looking at the lands, there was one that looked much more fertile then the next. Abram had been promised by God that He would take care of him and all he had to do was have faith. Earlier in Egypt Abram had looked at the circumstances and used his own instinct to determine his actions. I'm sure that this situation was tempting to do the same in. Lot and him needed to split up; there was not room for the both of them. If God said that Abram was going to prosper than he would need a fertile land to live on, so shouldn't he have chosen the fertile land right away?
Abram's integrity probably was significantly lowered in the eyes of his servants after the incident in Egypt. Allowing Lot to choose the land first might have been a thoughtful gesture, but probably wasn't too reassuring for his servants. But this time Abram chose to trust that no matter what choice befell him, God would be with him and take care of him. Consequently, Abram drew what seemed to be the short end of the stick. However, after he allowed Lot to choose first, God blessed him and said, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
What is encouraging to me about this story is Abram's developing faith. He initially had messed up and allowed his distrust of God to direct his actions, but he learned from his mistake and the next time, even though it was tempting to assume that God had the fertile land waiting for him, he decided to allow his brother-in-law choose and trust that God had Abram's best interest in mind no matter what the outcome.
I pray that we all would have a developing faith. We are going to have times where we don't trust God in the way that we should, and God will be disappointed with us. But that is not how he wants us to live our lives. He wants us to develop in our trust of him. He has a purpose, plan, and future for us. (Jeremiah 29:11)
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1) "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made is home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:9-10)
God is building a foundation and future for each of us. Trust. Have a developing faith in Him. Wait and watch Him work in incredible ways in your lives.
10.06.2009
More Pots
This is an exerpt from a book I've been reading, "Unlimiting God" by Richard Blackaby. It really challenged me to put "more pots" out for God....check it out-
"There's a wonderful story in the life of the prophet Elisha, in 2 Kings 4:1-7, that illustrates this principle. Elisha was approached by a desperate, impoverished widow. Her creditor was coming to take away her two sons and sell them into slavery as compensation, and she was frantic to save her children.
Elisha asked what she possessed. All she had of value was one jar of oil. He instructed her to gather all the containers she could borrow from her neighbors. "Do not gather just a few," he urged her. She was to our her meager amount of oil into those containers, then "set aside the full ones."
If God gave you that message, how many containers would you collect? When would you decide you had gathered enough?
The prophet knew that the only limit to what God would do was how aggressively the woman believed and obeyed. The woman and her sons gathered pots and took them inside their house. At a certain point they decided they'd amassed enough. She began pouring oil from her original container into the borrowed ones. The oil miraculously kept flowing until she had filled the last pot. Seeing this miraculous supply, the widow called out to her son, "Bring me another vessel." But they'd used all the containers they had. "So the oil ceased."
Then Elisha instructed her to sell the oil, pay off her creditors, and live on the rest.
The flow of oil ceased because the widow had no capacity to recievve anything more from God. It wasn't that God couldn't keep the oil coming; the woman simply was incapable of recieveing any more. Had she collected containers more aggressively, she would have recieved more oil and earned moremoney.
As it wa, God responded to the level of her faith. Did the woamn sin in not gathering more pots? No. She recieved according to her faith.
Likewise God invites each of us to prepare for what He intends to do in our lives. Some poeple expect to do great and mighty things, so they organize themselves accordingly. Others have smaller expectations, and as a result they aren't disappointed.
What God wants to do in each of our lives is to expand our trust in Him so we gather an enourmous number of pots-- because we believe God will do a fantastic work."
What a challenge. We recieve according to our faith. I pray that God gives each of us dreams and that we expect God to follow through and do amazing things. May God increase your faith!
"There's a wonderful story in the life of the prophet Elisha, in 2 Kings 4:1-7, that illustrates this principle. Elisha was approached by a desperate, impoverished widow. Her creditor was coming to take away her two sons and sell them into slavery as compensation, and she was frantic to save her children.
Elisha asked what she possessed. All she had of value was one jar of oil. He instructed her to gather all the containers she could borrow from her neighbors. "Do not gather just a few," he urged her. She was to our her meager amount of oil into those containers, then "set aside the full ones."
If God gave you that message, how many containers would you collect? When would you decide you had gathered enough?
The prophet knew that the only limit to what God would do was how aggressively the woman believed and obeyed. The woman and her sons gathered pots and took them inside their house. At a certain point they decided they'd amassed enough. She began pouring oil from her original container into the borrowed ones. The oil miraculously kept flowing until she had filled the last pot. Seeing this miraculous supply, the widow called out to her son, "Bring me another vessel." But they'd used all the containers they had. "So the oil ceased."
Then Elisha instructed her to sell the oil, pay off her creditors, and live on the rest.
The flow of oil ceased because the widow had no capacity to recievve anything more from God. It wasn't that God couldn't keep the oil coming; the woman simply was incapable of recieveing any more. Had she collected containers more aggressively, she would have recieved more oil and earned moremoney.
As it wa, God responded to the level of her faith. Did the woamn sin in not gathering more pots? No. She recieved according to her faith.
Likewise God invites each of us to prepare for what He intends to do in our lives. Some poeple expect to do great and mighty things, so they organize themselves accordingly. Others have smaller expectations, and as a result they aren't disappointed.
What God wants to do in each of our lives is to expand our trust in Him so we gather an enourmous number of pots-- because we believe God will do a fantastic work."
What a challenge. We recieve according to our faith. I pray that God gives each of us dreams and that we expect God to follow through and do amazing things. May God increase your faith!
10.01.2009
Saving Faith Means Dedication
I ran across this during my devotions and thought I'd share:
Saving belief is not simply intellectual acceptance, but whole-hearted dedication to Jesus Christ that is permanent:
1 John 5:1-2 says,
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandements."
I challenge you to read up to verse four because John continues to talk about what love looks like and how we are able to have victory over the world. What comes to mind when the word dedication is thrown out? To me it has a reverence to it. It has a connection in my discipline which likewise has a bit of a negative connotation to it for me because I know how good I am at being disciplined. The idea of being a free spirit just sounds better.
The truth of it is that you will find many people claiming that they are Christians. You may even do so yourself...but if what the Bible says is true, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments." and we are not loving each other or observing the commands of Scripture, we are NOT of Him!
What an incredible challenge. Join me in as I search for living a life of dedication to Christ before anything else.
This is my prayer for us,
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength." Ephesians 1:17-19
~.Our Faith is the Victory Over the World.~
Saving belief is not simply intellectual acceptance, but whole-hearted dedication to Jesus Christ that is permanent:
1 John 5:1-2 says,
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandements."
I challenge you to read up to verse four because John continues to talk about what love looks like and how we are able to have victory over the world. What comes to mind when the word dedication is thrown out? To me it has a reverence to it. It has a connection in my discipline which likewise has a bit of a negative connotation to it for me because I know how good I am at being disciplined. The idea of being a free spirit just sounds better.
The truth of it is that you will find many people claiming that they are Christians. You may even do so yourself...but if what the Bible says is true, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments." and we are not loving each other or observing the commands of Scripture, we are NOT of Him!
What an incredible challenge. Join me in as I search for living a life of dedication to Christ before anything else.
This is my prayer for us,
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength." Ephesians 1:17-19
~.Our Faith is the Victory Over the World.~
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