You only have to listen to the first sentence of the news each morning or night to hear bad news, at least most of the time. As a Christian, instead of concentrating on everything wrong around you, concentrate on what God wants you to do to change it. Then let Him work through you to accomplish the impossible.

It is easy to look back in history and think of great Christian reformers such as Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dwight L Moody and Charles Spurgeon as being unique people who did not have everyday lives as we do. We think of them as being larger than life, and never having a bad thought or never doing anything that would be considered as being wrong.

I have even thought of them as sitting in their study all day either reading their Bible or on their knees in prayer. I never thought of them as having a “real life” being the head of a family with all the responsibilities that came with it. Many of them were also pastors, so they definitely had to deal with people in all sorts of situations. I know they gave great importance to prayer and Bible study, but being locked up in their office all day praying or reading the Bible was out of the question.

When you read the story of their lives, you also find that they had faults and flaws just like everyone else on the planet. They were definitely not perfect or worthy of being put up on a pedestal as a person who never messed up, because many of them made huge mistakes.

If you feel God leading you to do something you feel is impossible or larger than life, don’t say NO just because you look at yourself and see all your imperfections and flaws.

*******************************

Isn’t God big enough to use you in spite of flaws and imperfections?

And will you trust Him to lead you in the right direction even if you don’t have a clue where you are headed, at least at the start of the journey?

*******************************

Every Christian must live in the world but should never conform to the values of it. If we conform, God can’t use us to change what is around us.

Romans 12: 2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

God works through us supernaturally when we are determined to walk in obedience to Him, and will we always be astounded to see what He does and the way He does it.

If Luther, Wesley, Moody, and Spurgeon had conformed to people around them instead of walking in obedience to God, He could never have used them to impact the world the way He was able to do.

Make the decision to submit your life to God and let Him use you to do whatever He chooses. There is no greater feeling when you wake up each morning than knowing ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY FOR SURE that you are in the center of His Will. It might seem that things are falling apart around you, but in the center of His Will is where you will find a peace and joy that you cannot understand any way other than knowing it is a supernatural thing from God Himself.

Like

Unlike

When asked how he determined the will of God on any matter, Muller listed the following steps he believed were necessary:

1.     “I get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to any particular matter.”

2.     “I do not leave the result to feelings or simple impressions.  That can make one open to great delusions.”

3.     “I seek God’s will through, or in connection with, his Word.  If you look to the Spirit without the Word, you open yourself to delusion.”

4.     “I consider providential [God-controlled] circumstances.”

5.     “I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me.”

6.     “I make sure I have a clear conscience before God and man.”

7.     “Every time I listened to men instead of God, I made serious mistakes.”

8.     “I act only when I am at peace, after much prayer, waiting on God with faith.”

When you give yourself to prayer, your faith rises.  And when you feed on God’s Word, your confidence in his power to lead and help you increases.  The more you read His Word, the more you will understand His Character.

George Muller got to the point that he knew he could trust God to provide his every need as long as he was in the center of God’s will. There is absolutely no safer place to be than right in the center of where God would have you to be.

Like

Unlike

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

I can’t remember how many times I have read this verse over my lifetime, but this time I have seen something I have never seen in it before – the righteousness of God is revealed from “faith to faith.”

Hebrews 11 is known as the Faith Chapter of the Bible. Many people of the Old Testament are listed as having a faith that God was pleased with. If you have not already read this chapter, please take the time to read and absorb it.

Verse 6 of the same chapter says that “without faith it is impossible to please him…”

I have never thought of it in this way, but since faith pleases God it makes perfect sense that He will relate to His Children in this way. God is omniscient and omnipresent, so He can be everywhere, hear every prayer, and meet every need all at the same time.

He sees the big picture of how everything fits together and knows exactly who He wants to use for particular tasks. When He chooses YOU for something, it is because He knows you are capable of handling it and are the best person suited for the job.

When  God tells us to do something that is way out of our comfort zone, most of us tend to look at all our faults, flaws, and  shortcomings and tell Him that He must have picked the wrong person because we can’t imagine that we would ever be capable of doing something of such a great magnitude.

From my own experience, I have found that the times of my greatest growth are the ones where I have been the most out of my comfort zone. I know I can trust God with my life even if I don ‘t always know the direction He is taking me for a time.

So when you have completed one task of faith, He has another one for you to start. The next time you feel you are being stretched to the faith limit, remember that is how you grow as a Christian. Then remember that God wants to stretch and grow you so that you can be used for His Glory. When you think of it that way, faith doesn’t seem quite so hard.

It is a simple matter of believing that what God has said will come to pass. Try it and see how your life changes for the better.

Like

Unlike

I Corinthians 1: 26-31

For ye see your calling, brethren , how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

That no flesh should glory in his presence.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption .

That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

These verses are very refreshing and give much hope to all who read them, especially if we are just “plain joes or janes” and feel that we don’t have special talents or gifts that can be used for the Kingdom of God.

The awesome thing about these verses – God is looking for people who absolutely don’t have the ability to do what He has called them to do on their own merits.

Most of the disciples Jesus called were rough, hard, unlearned people who were definitely not suited for the job from man’s standpoint. We are told specifically in verses 29 and 31 that only God deserves the glory and He will not share it with flesh.

So if you have surrendered your life to God and are asking Him to use you, EXPECT, I SAY AGAIN EXPECT Him to tell you to do something that you are not capable of doing on  your own.

Why are we so afraid of trusting our life to the God who created the universe and everything in it and made MAN the crowning part of His creation. Just because you can’t see with your physical eyes where you are going, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t know.

Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where all the fruit is?  -C S Lewis-

There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New
England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a
rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit.

Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak…

“I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming
toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three
little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked, “What do you have there, son?”
“Just some old birds,” came the reply.

“What are you going to do with them?” I asked.
“Take ‘em home and have fun with ‘em,” he answered. “I’m gonna tease
‘em and pull out their feathers to make ‘em fight. I’m gonna have a real
good time.”

“But you’ll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do
then?”

“Oh, I got some cats,” said the little boy. “They like birds. I’ll take
‘em to them.”

The pastor was silent for a moment. “How much do you want for those
birds, son?”

“Huh?? !!! Why, you don’t want them birds, mister. They’re just plain
old field birds. They don’t sing. They ain’t even pretty!”

“How much?” the pastor asked again. The boy sized up the pastor as if
he were crazy and said, “$10?”

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He
placed it in the boy’s hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor
picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where
there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the
door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting
them free. Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and
then the pastor began to tell this story:

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just
come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. “Yes,
sir, I just caught a world full of people down there. Set me a trap,
used bait I knew they couldn’t resist. Got ‘em all!”

“What are you going to do with them?” Jesus asked.

Satan replied, “Oh, I’m gonna have fun! I’m gonna teach them how to
marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to
drink and smoke and curse. I’m gonna teach them how to invent guns and
bombs and kill each other. I’m really gonna have fun!”

“And what will you do when you are done with them?” Jesus asked. “Oh,
I’ll kill ‘em,” Satan glared proudly.

“How much do you want for them?” Jesus asked.

“Oh, you don’t want those people. They ain’t no good. Why, you’ll take
them and they’ll just hate you.. They’ll spit on you, curse you and kill
you. You don’t want those people!!”

“How much? He asked again.
Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, “All your blood, tears and your
life.”

Jesus said, “DONE!” Then He paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage and walked from the pulpit.

The dream was about a lady who was trying to sell me a mask. When I put it on it was supposed to show the “real me.” By that phrase I mean it was supposed to show everything about me deep inside – my thoughts, flaws, all the deep things I maybe knew about myself but didn’t dare want anybody else to know about.

I decided to try on the mask and remember feeling a creepy, scared, sick feeling all mixed together. Everything on my face was covered except my eyes and my face looked different. I got really scared and took the mask off quickly.

Later on I found out that if you left it on for a certain amount of time it would just become a part of you and you could never take it off.

As I lay in bed trying to make the panic feeling go away, the Holy Spirit started to speak to me and revealed that most of us have gotten to the point that we wear a permanent mask to hide who we really are because we don’t want the real person to come out many times. We try to put our “best self” forward so that others will think we are more spiritual than we really are.

I have to admit that I used to be a huge people-pleaser kind of person. I wanted to do everything to make everyone like me, no matter what the circumstances. That is a huge undertaking that is totally impossible and something no one should ever take upon themselves to even attempt.

If you have asked Jesus to be your Savior, then God is the only one you should ever be worried about having favor with. You will never be able to please everyone else no matter how hard you try.

That morning long ago, the Holy Spirit laid it strongly upon my heart to do everything possible to keep the sin out of my life and encouraged me to put on the transparent mask and be as real as possible among others.

I am not telling you to go out and share with everyone in your life every problem you might have. Satan is always lurking around trying to find something to use against you, so you definitely need to ask God for discernment about who you confide in. Again I say definitely use discernment about who you share intimate details or problems with.

I am talking about just “being real” in your everyday life. Have such an intimate relationship with God that the real you spills over into every area. If you live in this way, you don’t have to think first before you act. God will just naturally flow from you in your words and actions.

It will also make you a much happier person to know that you don’t have to put on a “hiding” mask for different occasions. You can just be yourself, let God take control, and see where He leads you. Take it from me (a person who knows very well,) it is very liberating to be able to do what God has called you to do without the guilt and worry of trying to please everyone else.

Make it a point to live so that when the mask shows the “real you,” it will be something you will be proud for everyone else to see.

Live the words of the hymn written by B. B. McKinney in 1924 – Let others see Jesus in you!

It is not always an easy thing to run the Christian race victoriously, and sometimes it is even downright hard. God doesn’t always tell you to do things that are popular or fun, but expects you to walk in obedience to His direction.

It is walking in this kind of obedience that you start to see the REAL Character of God. And as I have started to do that more and more, I don’t want to go back to the way I used to be even if what He tells me to do is hard.

I Corinthians 9: 24-27

24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible.

26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I not as one that beateth the air.

27.But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

In I Corinthians 9, Paul is talking here about running a race. He gives a comparison to athletes who train for the Olympic races in Greek and Rome. He talks about how disciplined they must become if they expect to win. Even today’s Olympians start training right after one Olympics for the next one four years away. They have rigid diets and exercise programs and do a lot of self-sacrifice for their dream of winning the gold medal.

When Paul told them “run that ye may obtain,” he meant seize, possess, take eagerly, apprehend to win. To obtain means to have your eye on winning at all times, not just placing second, third, or barely making it through the race.

Paul says that the athletes competed for their own glory. They received a crown made of vines that would eventually dry up and die. They would eventually be forgotten even if they were the greatest in their time, but things done for The Kingdom of God will last forever.

Verse 26 – The boxers warmed up for their fight by punching the air with their gloves. They didn’t have a contender so it looked like they were thrashing around not getting anything done. Paul wanted to use this particular phrase of “beateth the air” to get his point across.

Verse 27 – “keep under my body” means to strike under the eye with the fist, make the eye black and blue, to treat with harshness, severity, or cruelty; to subject oneself to self-denial and rigid discipline that all the corrupt passions might be removed

subjection – to reduce to slavery, subdue an enemy, to conquer, to obtain complete victory over

So Paul was telling the Corinthians that it is no small feat to obtain and keep the victory over Satan for the Christian life. It takes discipline and self-restraint to live a life that is holy before God. You can’t just go along with the crowd and expect to be victorious. You must take a stand and make the appropriate sacrifices just like an athlete who wants to win the gold medal. They have their eye on a very real prize at the end of their hard years of training just like the Christian who can look forward to the prize of living a victorious life here on earth with the ultimate prize of Heaven.

Even though I am not overweight, I still have to watch what I eat. I don’t know about you, but many times I want to eat even when I am not hungry. I will stand in front of the cupboard and try to find something, which usually ends up being junk food.

In the United States junk food is everywhere and very easy to obtain, so I have to make an effort to eat a balanced diet each day. It is easy to grab something quick rather than take the time to make a healthy dish that would be much better for my body in the long run.

After a few years of struggling with this issue off and on, God started to reveal to me that I need to take much more seriously the words of I Corinthians 6: 19-20:

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

*************************************************************

I have no idea what areas of your life need to be kept “under your body” and in “subjection,” but God knows every detail and what He wants to do to help you win the prize and receive an incorruptible crown. Ask Him to show you areas in your life that need to be brought into subjection and determine to go forward with Him even if it makes you uncomfortable. God has your best interest in mind with everything He wants to accomplish in your life.

Don’t stand in His Way!

I took some time to really study the first five verses of John 15 and listed the meaning of each key word in another website I have called Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living . Please take the time now to click on the link in the previous sentence and study these verses as I did.

I have realized that in the past I have only partially understood what the Bible talks about as “abiding.” Jesus is the one and only true vine and it is the job of the Father to take care of and defend the branches on the vine so they will produce the best fruit.

The vine, or main stalk, yields the proper juice and nourishment to all the branches, whether large or small, but all the nourishment must pass through the vine first.

Some of the branches might be very large but not producing much fruit and sheltering other smaller branches so they cannot grow well. These large branches still receive nourishment even though they don’t produce much fruit, but they absorb a lot of energy from the rest of the vine that smaller branches could use that are already producing fruit. For this reason God must prune as much as is necessary and needful in order to keep the vine healthy, even if it means cutting off some large branches.

For much of my life I have looked at pruning as a bad thing, or felt that God was punishing me for something I either did or didn’t do; but as I have started to really understand these verses I see that God only has my best interest in mind when He changes things or cleans up my life in certain areas. Sometimes I am not even aware that I need to change, and I might have a large branch in my life that I think is important, but in actuality is covering a smaller branch that God wants to grow and develop further. His job is to continually tweak and purge the branches so they give off the sweetest fruit.

To truly abide in the vine is to become united with Christ in every area of your life: your interests, desires, and feelings.

It is a union of friendship, love and dependence; a union of weakness with strength; of imperfection with perfection; of a dying nature with a living Savior; of a lost sinner with an unchanging Friend and Redeemer.  (Barnes Study Notes)

Verse 4 starts out “Abide in me, and I in you…”

The Greek meaning of this verb means to remain as one, not to become another or different and is in the Imperative Mood, which expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding (Jesus.)

So Jesus commands His Children to get to know Him so intimately that total obedience and dependence are a natural way of life.

The vine itself sends out juices and sap in accordance with the growth and fruitfulness of the branch. So the tighter you are connected to the vine, the sweeter and better the fruit you will bear.

The next time you feel you are being pruned, don’t think of it as a bad thing like I have done in the past. Think about it in the context that God loves you so much that He doesn’t want you to be just a ho-hum, boring Christian. He wants to get rid of the things that are weighing you down, and replace them with ones that are productive and will bring glory to His Kingdom.

What a way to live! You certainly won’t lead a boring life!

Like

Unlike

In Ephesians 5: 2, Paul describes the crucifixion of Christ as an offering and sacrifice that was a “sweet smelling savour” to God.

If anyone comes into a room wearing perfume, it is immediately picked up by the nostrils. From that point, the nose decides if it is a wonderful, delicious smell or one that is loud, irritating to the eyes, and obnoxious. Either way, the smell of the perfume quickly permeates the room and for a few seconds your thoughts are completely absorbed with it.

God gave to Moses rules the Israelites must follow when they brought the sacrifice for their sin before God. If they did not follow these rules, the sacrifice would not be pleasing to Him and things would not bode well for that person who presented it. God meant business when it came to the Israelites walking in obedience to Him because He had miraculously brought them out of Egypt and fed and cared for them each day for many years.

I Samuel 15: 22

Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Even the smartest person has a very small mind when compared to the All-Powerful God who created the universe and everything in it. No human has the potential to see the “whole scope of things” and how everything will fit together to bring about the plans of God.

He has an awesome and unique plan for your life that will make it a “sweet smelling savour” to God’s nostrils.

God wants your complete obedience  - NOT a religious act, doing the same old same old humdrum stuff, doing things in the same way and knowing it doesn’t work but doing it anyway because you don’t know anything else to do.

He wants you to walk with Him each day and be prepared to do what He says. Believe me, just doing this will make your life ENORMOUSLY more productive in doing things that really count for the Kingdom of God.

He will continually amaze you at the things He is able to accomplish through you if you let Him. After you get a taste of doing things His Way, your old way of doing things won’t seem so appealing any more.

A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a

seminary class, given by her teacher. She says that

Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons.

One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they

were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were

many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that

they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow

them to throw darts at the person’s picture.

Sally’s friend drew a picture of who had stolen her boyfriend.

Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a

picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her

drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased with the

overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the

students threw their darts with such force that their targets were

ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with

disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the

students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry

she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her

target. Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall.

Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over

the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and

jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words…. ‘In as much as ye have done

it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’

Matthew 25:40.

No other words were necessary; the tear filled eyes of the

students focused only on the picture of Christ.

**************************************************

It is very easy to let your entire focus be consumed by how someone else has wronged you, or maybe even what they haven’t done that might have been the right thing to do in a situation that concerned you.

Satan knows that if he can make you dwell on the shortcomings of others, you won’t have much time to allow God to use you for furthering His Kingdom Work.

At some point, other people may disappoint you in some way that you might never understand their motive. It is certainly not in our fleshly nature to naturally forgive someone who has wronged us, especially when it was not something we feel we deserved.

Our natural fleshly self wants to dwell on it for hours or even days or months. We don’t want to rest until we have had retribution in some form, but God has a completely different way of doing things.

You must look at things from His perspective. He only desires the very best for your life, and wants to use you in an awesome way to further His Kingdom work. It is for this reason that God gave the Bible to every Christian as an instruction book on how to be able to live the best life possible.

Each Christian is responsible for making sure they follow the guidelines set forth in the Bible. For example, God tells us very clearly that we have no choice but to forgive others if we intend to stay in fellowship with Him. Our flesh speaks very loudly that this could never be the right thing to do because then the other person will never have to pay for what they have done if we don’t make them.

But God comes back and tells us in His Word that a person will always reap what they have sown. They will always pay in some way for what they have done so God wants you to leave all that to Him and concentrate on what He wants you to do.

Living in the flesh makes you a miserable person, but following God’s plan will bring peace, joy, and fulfillment. I know it is hard to believe that the act of forgiveness could cause such a drastic change in your life, but you just have to try it to see the dramatic results.

If you are concentrated on God, you will start to see Him work in ways that will astound you. It will be hard to believe what He can accomplish through your life if you will let Him.

You can’t forgive on your own, but all you have to do is ask Him to help you and truly mean what you say. God will take it from that point on and you can truly be on the road to living a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment no matter where you have been in the past.

Don’t throw darts any longer at the person who hurt you. Make the choice to forgive and let God handle the rest of the story…

Like

Unlike