Do We Take Him At His Word?

“To accept the will of God never leads to the miserable
feeling that it is useless to strive anymore.
God does not ask for the dull, weak,
sleepy acquiescence of indolence.
He asks for something vivid and strong.
He asks us to cooperate with him, actively willing what he wills,
our only aim his glory.” (Amy Carmichael)

Do you ever feel like it’s really difficult to follow the Lord’s commands? I mean on a daily basis. Think about the things that God gives us as instructions as how to live the lives that He has for us. He tells us not to worry. He tells us to trust him completely. He tells us to love Him with all of our hearts, souls and strength. He tells us to love our neighbors as our selves. He tells us not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will care for itself. He tells us to trust Him completely and in doing so be led by Him down His path for our lives. He tells us not to fear but that He will take care of our every need. He tells us that if our ways please Him that He will make even our enemies be at peace with us. He tells us that if we train up our children His way that when they are old they will not depart from it. There are hundreds of other things that the Lord tells us to do that provide for us the way to experience life at its full. Do we take Him at His word?

Out of the many things that our God tells us to do in order to have the life that He’s created us for, there are other things that He tells us not to do in order to receive the same. It’s been that way since the beginning. Adam and Eve were told to do many things, but one thing that they were told not to do, they did and it changed history forever and the penalty was severe. How would things be different if they had only obeyed? Remember Achan in Joshua 7. Earlier he had been told not to keep the things devoted to the Lord, but he did it anyway. God was not pleased and Achan and all he had was destroyed. If only he had obeyed and waited. We see in chapter 8 that all Achan desired, worldly treasures, were already in God’s plan to give him, but due to his lack of trust, expressed through disobedience he never got to partake of God’s bounty.

How many things have we, will we miss out on that God has planned for us because of our impatience, fear, bitterness, lack of forgiveness, etc. all which when boiled down equal lack of trust. Father is not one who gives commands just for the sake of giving them; he does so with a much bigger picture in mind. Obedience opens the door to multiplied blessings that He is waiting to give to those who take the “risk” to trust in Him with all their hearts with the aim to bring Him honor and glory.

With you on the journey towards total trust,

MJ

I"m Sorry!

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing more we can do.”

No one wants to hear those eight words about someone that they love, especially if that someone is their child.

Over the years, I’ve stood with many parents who have had to say goodbye to a child who’s life seemed to be cut way too short. In those circumstances, countless people have asked, “How could a loving God allow this to happen, especially to a child?” Whether you’ve laid a child, a spouse, a sibling or a dear friend to rest, it’s possible that you’ve asked that question as well.

Jesus, in essence was asked the same question over 2,000 years ago when his good friend, Lazarus died. Our Lord had been summoned to come and be by His friend’s side, but instead he completed what he was doing and then came. After Lazarus died, his sister, Martha, said to Jesus, “"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21) He then put her situation in eternal perspective and explained that even this very difficult circumstance was in place for the glory of God. (Read John 11:-1-43)

God is so gracious to give us the Bible, filled with stories of people just like you and me. And in just about every circumstance, both good and bad that we can imagine, we see that in the midst of every situation, every page from beginning to end, “their story” was incorporated with “His story” and had as it ultimate goal, God’s glory.

No matter what your loss today, whether it’s a death of a person, a job, a dream, or a relationship, God’s words of comfort to you today remain the same; take heart, “This will ultimately be for my glory and I will walk with you all the way to the realization of that.” Hold onto Him today, He’s worthy of your trust.

Be Right Or Stay Married?

Would you rather be right or stay married? Silly question, you might say. But when you realize that due to our sinful nature most of the arguments that we have with our spouses are born out of selfishness and or the necessity of being heard, having the last word and or being right, it’s not that much of a stretch.

You may be one of those people who say, “We’ve been married for “x” amount of years and we’ve never had an argument!” Well, my first question to you is how many of those “x” years did you actually live under the same roof? Arguments, or if you like, “strong, marital differences of opinion” are normal and natural in any relationship where two humans live and grow together. The question is, how do you “argue” and how do you treat each other during those occasions, however, frequent or infrequent they are.

I love God’s Word, because it contains principles and guidelines for every situation we find ourselves in. Nowhere in God’s Word will you find, “Thou Shall Not Argue!” However, it does say, “Don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful…” (Ephesians 4:29). It also says, referring to our speech, “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” (James 3:10-12). Reminding us of the duplicitous nature and power of our words Proverbs 11:19 says, “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” And a foundational verse for those times of difficulty is found in Ephesians 4:6, “"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.”

May God remind each of us today and in the days to come of the grace and mercy that we have received from Him, so that when our holding on to be right or heard tempts us to give our spouse an “old fashioned” tongue whipping, we will remember how he responds to us and do like-wise.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Cute, but it’s a lie from the pit of hell!

MJ

We Do Not Pray Because We Doubt

"Often we do not pray because we doubt that anything will actually happen if we pray. Of course, we don’t admit this publicly. But if we felt certain of visible results within sixty seconds of every prayer, there would be holes in the knees of every pair of Christian-owned pants in the world!" Donald Whitney

Prayer is one of the most wonderful and powerful gifts and privileges that God has given us. Just think, when you and I pray the God of the universe gives us His undivided attention. Many times it’s hard to even get our friends and family to do that! How awesome it is to think that God would listen to us express everything from our praises to petitions and be pleased when we do so.

Most of us have personal prayer times. However, one thing that many churches are weak is their times of corporate prayer. Praying alone is essential yet prayer is also something to be done with others in the Body of Christ. Whether it’s in a small group, large corporate gathering or at home, being with others is following a pattern modeled by those we read about in Scriptures.

In the Scriptures we see believers gathering to hear the Word and do the acts that God had set down for them. They heard, saw, tasted, smelled, felt and sang about God’s love. As the Spirit drew them together they responded in prayer. Also, public prayer shed insight to them what others private prayers were about. In His writings about Believers praying together, Robert Longman Jr. asks us to consider this: “In public they prayed when they didn’t want to pray or didn’t feel like praying; they prayed when they had trouble concentrating on praying; they prayed when they weren’t prepared for it; they prayed the Word by drawing their liturgies and readings from the Scriptures; they prayed for and with those they were in conflict with; they prayed about people and things that they wouldn’t have thought to pray for or would have forgotten to pray for.”

Prayer is a discipline. Public prayer helps us learn through a unity of purpose and helps strengthen our private times. To have a complete prayer life we are reminded that the lessons learned during corporate prayer times feed back into our private prayer lives, and the lessons of private prayer feed back into the corporate gatherings.

Each week at 7:00pm on Wednesday nights we gather to do just that, a time of prayer and praise. You are invited to come and join us as we spend time in His presence praising and praying from our hearts to His.

With you on the journey, MJ

Impossible

Impossible: “felt to be incapable of being done, attained, or fulfilled.” (Webster’s) When you think of that word, what are some of the things that you would say are impossible? Although we may not express it, in reality, most of us have an extensive list. How long have you been praying for that break through at work, home or in that relationship and nothing seems to change? How many times have you read that God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that you can ask or think? Do we believe that He will do that for every single one of our needs? How many times do we separate the truth that God will supply all of our needs from the truth of His ability to do so?

Here’s the God we see in the Bible: He divided the waters of the Red Sea and the Israelites walked across on dry land. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in a blazing fire and not a single hair on their heads was singed, their robes were not scorched, there was not even the smell of smoke on them. Daniel was thrown into the midst of hungry lions and he wasn’t eaten or even hurt from the fall. Elijah saw God send fire from heaven and burn up a sacrifice drenched with water that licked up the soil and the water. Lazarus was raised from the dead. We see God come to earth as a baby and give up His life willingly to be murdered by His own creation. All of these things in and of themselves were seemingly impossible. None could happen outside of Divine intervention. None happened outside of God accomplishing His purposes through initial suffering.

What impossibility are you facing today? Is there something in your life, on your heart that you are agonizing about and you just can’t see how it will ever happen? As we read Scripture we see that God majors in doing the impossible.

The same God who spoke the world into order, who breathed the breath of life into mankind, who gave sight to the blind, who gave his own life for us, is the same God who is here to meet with you today, wanting you to know that what you see as impossible is an opportunity for you to see Him express His love for you. Now that doesn't mean that the result will be exactly as you desire, but as you draw near to Him and grow to know Him better through faith, your focus will move from your impossibility to the Worker of impossible things. The real miracle of a miracle is that the object of affection after a miracle is not the miracle, but the Miracle Worker. Trusting Him with you for your miracle,

MJ