Devotions Life like Light 7/9/21

Had a nice dream last night. At least that was good, haha. Seemed to do something to do with me being a servant of God.

Sometimes the hardest things to do are the very things that go against our nature, the things we are used to doing!

To live for goodness that is in God through His Son Jesus is like a struggle with our sin. At least I have many times felt this way, where we know now what we had done before was wrong but it just seems too tempting to not give in to it again.

Even if we avoid what we were once used to doing though we still sin! There is something about our nature since the fall of Adam that which we still have the sinner’s life but in the case of following Jesus we just won’t do the old stuff it seems anymore.

And that is a blessing to live in the holy Spirit of the Father. But life in Christ will also involve leading others towards the life of Christ.

And some of those things involve forgiving people who have done wrong to you.

Yes it is tough but it seems that though it is something we won’t want to do in our stubbornness while happening to be in the walk in Christ, it is an action we must do!

In the last part of Luke 6:37 it says “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

While that verse mentions many things involved in the ones who want to follow God (I hope to reference this in more depth some other time hopefully!) I want to focus on this part.

It seems with people I know it is a huge carnal idea to not forgive.

People don’t like it. I used to struggle with it, especially with people I apparently thought were not as good as myself, which was wrong. “But they did that to me, why should I forgive them..?!”

But forgiveness is something God wants us to do. Maybe one day those people will see the change in us and want to follow Christ. Would you want to see people you think might never know the Lord to one day do that? That is my hope too!

Proverbs 3 also describes something that reflects something we must not do though we could be used to the latter: To trust in what we may not “see.”

Proverbs 3:5 states: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding”

That means putting complete and total trust in what we might not notice or see. We must trust and depend on what He wants us to do. Not only that, we must be sensitive to the holy spirit.

We must as we live and have fun in life think of what in our hearts is what we should do for Him. We must be “in tune” to God’s will and seek what He would want over what we might expect in life, say working endlessly to one day get a huge house and be extremely rich.

Do you follow God? I hope to live well but I don’t know or want to imagine having a ton of money like upper-class rich people. I bet I would do nothing but worry about how much I have every week for the rest of my life, haha!

Nope, I don’t think I’d want that. My opinion though.

It’s okay if you one day live well. But if you want to follow the Lord are you giving things and taking time for others to be a servant for Christ? Do you care about who you know over how much is left in your accounts at the bank?

Live for His goodness.

We must also tell of Christ and His impact in our lives. Proverbs continues on with a second sentence closely linked to the first by a semicolon. Proverbs 3:6:

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

So should we credit Him for the amazing things that have happened in our lives? Do you have an amazing story that only Jesus could have done within it all in your life?

We should acknowledge Him as He will be known and glorified and we will continue to seek out His will as others want to find out what this life is all about.

We need Christ to direct our way through life, otherwise there are some very bad ways, directions to go.

Jesus also told His first followers about the important aspects of life for God, His Father.

Jesus (told) his followers that they will be the ones to carry his light forth into the dark places of the world and the human heart. Source: connectusfund.org

(Sorry, I do a lot of internet searching. Usually though it’s not a full piece of the source, hope this one is part of something good!)

This is describing context to what Jesus was doing when He shared this which was told in the book of Matthew:

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Matthew 5:14

Do you see your life in all of these aspects of following Christ? You might not want to do all of this stuff right away but know that God does life-changing things in people who simply follow His commands.

And He will bless our lives in ways we might never see coming! All because of grace and living in tune to God’s will through His Son. Amen.

Nightly Devotions- 5/18/21

This was at 1 A. M.

Like it says in God’s Word in Psalms 119: 11:

“…I will hide Your word in my heart that i might not sin against You.”

Oh how man’s sin is! To conform or to make things as a believer that Christ is not is sad.

Page 105 of A. W. Tozer’s book The Pursuit of God says, “we insist upon trying to modify Him…bring Him… to our image.”

It says in God’s Word “His Word is true.” We must never make the Christian life what He isn’t and try all in honoring Him with all our heart. Let’s ask for a discerning heart to fully know Christ!

Quick Quip- No Greater Love

Has anyone seen that movie “First Sunday” with Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan? I love that film. It is so beautiful. That’s not because of it’s “preachy” message but that under its heart it shows the depths of God’s Love.

As the characters go through so much toil in looking for a job they give up and turn to crime.  Now what would you think? Do you think going to church the people there would look at them and go “What? They did what? They’re not allowed here!”

I’m kind of going away from the main conventions of the story but I’m trying to prove a point. The point is what the church, the people of believers in Christ do. Now they could turn people away that are like that but that is in their heart and their heart would be wrong in doing so.

These people show such love. This is not because being loving is a “good” thing but because the greater one in their lives changed their hearts and that is Jesus Christ.

God can do amazing things in the church, outside it, and just about anywhere! We just need to find in our hearts to seek the Kingdom of God His righteousness and He because of Jesus who died for us lead the way!

 

Stand Firm Now-10/14/14

These celebrations are crazy though I am learning of an alternative to Halloween. Hope people besides me learn more or start to about Harvest Day. It’s funny how our desire towards evil and sinful themes gets our interest during this time.

Where do you stand for Christ? Do you proclaim Him in front of witnesses? Do you share him in little nice little doses of goodness? Do you hear people making fun of ones of the faith and you want to ease off and hide in the corner?

Do you even witness of Jesus at all?

Whether you like to write, direct anything, be a doer (or want to be) of the Lord I hope that I will encourage you. We must all know that it is never wrong to share the faith of the one who loves us all dearly (even the so-called “enemies” and people around you) as even little tiny moments of witness will never go void.

Do you have known atheists in your life? Ask them gently why they feel that way while on a regular discussion and he starts to talk about evolution. Do you think a person is not telling the right truth? Tell your say but pray when you do so (you yourself may be wrong. That’s happened to me before and I didn’t talk to God for wisdom first).

Have you ever felt that you misrepresented God? Know that in all things God forgives you if you mean that you want it from Him to move on.

I do not know your heart.

But God does. And while He only wants us to be part of His life we must in mutual adoration and love serve Him in return. People need Jesus now more than ever because people are dying in fires, terrorist attacks, there is a threat to the USA by a group and people are afraid, they don’t know what they should do. And they have you for comfort.

Don’t you want to be there for them?

Paul spoke to his group in Ephesus from a jail. He was preaching the word and imprisoned for doing such an “offensive” act. He spoke to a people that were imperfect just like you or me or the many people on this earth yet to know God and He encouraged them for love.

The Love by Christ’s sacrifice as He was an example of the fullness of love itself.

Just as Christ died for Paul, he wanted to do whatever he could to tell his people the great truths from God, the Holy Spirit.

He told them to give up lying and speak to others truthfully. He said to not be angry and also to not sin.

Don’t go to bed angry. That is kinda what he’s sayin’ here. He says in NKJV verse 26 chapter 4 of Ephesians: “…do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”

Ever been angry and had nothing to do with it? I have. We should not do that. We must in love if people are persecuting you or teasing your faith we should tell them sometimes that they are being cruel. But a bad thing to do would be to throw a book at the person or something!

It says we should not let Satan get a foothold on our “wrath.”

I say find something to do if you get mad at somebody’s statements so you don’t get discouraged. Write, read God’s Word and meditate on it, do something! Pray that God would take out the anger that was in your heart because we have to tell others about the Lord and flipping out or cursing at someone is not showing an example of a person with Jesus alive in their heart.

Paul told them they must not steal. Man, what was this church in Ephesus doing, on a side note?

Sorry back on track. They encouraged people to steal no longer but instead work for his hands and keep doing something good so that they might need to give in certain situations their hard-earned money.

What were you like before you knew Christ? Do you still do things in your heart to that effect and need to bring some unresolved sin to God? Jesus died for it. Let’s not sink in quick-sand by destroying the people around us in ways that are not right and don’t let people know we have light in our hearts.

And we should be slow in anger not retaliate! If people are consistent with teasing or picking on you over your faith just talk to them back. I don’t know what you are going through but these are just thoughts (hey- it’s a blog! ;P).

We should as people who make up churches be building each other up as well. Be kind to one another, treat each other with love and not sin against or with each other.

And back on track again, if you have ever been doing anything that is heart-breaking to God in public do the opposite. You are a follower of Christ! You love Him don’t you? We should all be kind and fervent examples but humble and serve like the Son of God.

We should not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. At first I misunderstood this but “grieving” is by the Holy Spirit’s perspective. It should not be grieving from something you are doing which is habitual sin, deliberate actions that are hurting God because you were made for something better.

Another reason to be refreshed by Christ’s mercy and example!

Do you stand on gardening soil, stuff that would sink in if you merely put your feet onto it? Is that why you can’t stand because you are only firmly on your own ideals and ideas?

Or maybe you stand on gold ground. Stuff that was man-made into seeming pure ore and makes you feel tough. You’ve got this! And there is no dern way you cannot survive. You made it, you got here on your own… but guess what?

It seems secure but it ain’t pure gold. It’s man-made.

It’s only temporary security that won’t add up to much when you stand on it on your own.

So stand on firm ground for Christ Jesus. May we share, love, give, and sacrifice minutes or hours, or sometimes days for His glory.

And don’t stand later. Stand now. His power in changing your life from the everyday into the day by day growth in Him can do amazing things beyond your or any of our comprehension.

On Christ alone wonders will happen. Trust in Him today and be a cause for Christ.