Wednesday Morning Devotional

Let it SHINE ‘til Jesus comes!

Matthew 25:1-13

Well, this is gonna wrap it up for the little light series. It has been a humbling experience to know that God has used me to remind others to shine His light. Thank you for all of the comments, but all of the glory goes to the source of our eternal light!

During one of the recent storms that came through, our power went out. Adam did the usual…went in search of our oil lamps. He brings one into the bedroom and hands it to me. He said, “you are foolish” 🙂 (referencing the parable mentioned above). We were very low on oil in all of our lamps. It would not have been a big deal, but we were in the middle of a Boggle tournament. Let me just say, Boggle is the only thing that I can beat Adam at…. occasionally. He gives me some stiff competition though! We tried to play one of our sets that night. The light was so faint that you could barely see the letters or write without being right on top of them. It was aggravating!

Adam has written many times that he feels that we are living in the last days. I agree with him. The world is getting darker and darker. It will become harder to let our lights shine, but it is the most crucial time. In the parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins, we read that half had gone the extra mile. They brought extra jars of oil. They were all ready for the moment, but only half of them were ready for the long haul. When the bridegroom came, the foolish ones were not prepared. Throughout the Bible, oil is often times symbolic for the Holy Spirit. The wise virgins were full of the Spirit….full to overflowing since they had extra jars of oil with them. They led a life dedicated to filling themselves with eternal things and not temporal things of this world.

Wise ones are full of knowledge from studying God‘s word, have a close relationship with their Lord through prayer, and keep themselves ready no matter how long the wait may be. The foolish ones are depending on others to keep them “lit”. They have a confession of faith, but their lives do not reflect a close relationship with the Lord. They may depend on Mama or Granny to pray for them or the preacher to minister to them. They go to church when the tough times hit, but when things turn around for them, well, they start to slack off again. They are trying to borrow oil from someone else…..and that will not work. Jesus is coming for those that are IN LOVE with him, not the ones that are clinging to a prayer they prayed years ago and do not act on it.

Do you know how hard it is to find lamp oil in the middle of summer? When I went to buy some, so we would be prepared for the next time, I had to go all over the county! (Finally found it at Fred’s in Westminster for those of you who are wondering.) We are prepared for the next power outage. Spiritually, we have to be prepared! Slowly, our religious freedom is being silenced. Pastors already face persecution when they openly speak against homosexuality and other hot topics from the pulpit. We can’t pray in public unless it is to an unnamed god without facing opposition. I’m afraid this is only the beginning. How far will it go? That’s what we have to be prepared for….are you ready? It will become harder and harder to “find oil” in the days to come.

In the last day’s God has promised to “to pour out his Spirit onto all people” (Joel 2:28). He wants to fill us to overflowing! He will demonstrate His power in supernatural ways. All over this world, God is moving in awesome ways in the lives of His people. We have seen miracle after miracle just in our local congregation as we have begun embracing a life of prayer. I believe this too, is only the beginning! Only when you step into the light and walk in it will you find forgiveness, joy, love, peace, and many other benefits that our Bridegroom has and wants for us to enjoy. He longs to come for you, his precious Bride, and spend eternity together! He is jealous for you….he wants a Bride that is totally, completely, hopelessly in love with HIM. He is coming for you!!! Prepare yourself…..dwell daily in His presence and let his sweet anointing drench you!

Let it shine ‘til Jesus comes!

Tonya

Don’t let Satan (make a blowing noise) it out!

Psalms 126:2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

Nehemiah 8:10.…The joy of the Lord is your strength!

We have spent a couple of weeks being reminded to let our lights shine….brightly. So, what about the dark days that are bound to come?

I tried so hard to avoid sharing a “depressing” devotion, but I couldn’t get away from it. (Rest assured, when Adam returns, he will bring his humor). I live a blessed life, no doubt about it! I was raised in a loving, Christian home. I have 2 loving, supportive families. I have been surrounded by wonderful church families. I am blessed to be married to an amazing husband and have 2 healthy, beautiful children. I have a great job and fantastic co-workers. I have also had a fair amount of grief thrown in the mix. When I was 22, my mother died with cancer. Life as I knew it would never be the same. She was my best friend, mentor, spiritual advisor, etc. Little did I know, 18 months later, I would lose my Daddy to sudden heart failure. The storm rolled in and settled in my life. I have been a Christian since I was 6. It was not until this point in my life that the very foundations of my faith were tested. I was angry at God, I was disappointed in Him, I was devastated! My light did very little shining….in fact, it was gone. Did I backslide? No. Did I regret ever living my life for Jesus? No. Did I let Satan blow out my light …….YES! I was miserable. Everyone around me knew it. I HAD NO JOY!!

I was in college when Daddy passed away. So, I finished college….by the grace of God and the support of my amazing sister and brother and their families. Throughout my grieving process, I learned that no matter how disappointed in God that I was, HE was more present in my life than I could ever imagine. He wrapped those loving arms around me, and pulled me through. My faith was tested and made strong through this process. I know I serve a Savior that is touched by my grief and wants me to live in His JOY. A joy that only comes from having a TRUE relationship with Him.

Skip down the road about 7 years later. Another massive storm rolls through…this time hitting me and Adam. We had tried for over a year to have a baby. We finally got pregnant and then I miscarried at 12 weeks. 6 months later, we were pregnant again….once again, we lost that baby. Satan thought he could play this game again….no sir buddy! We were devastated to say the least. This time, I knew that the Lord had His own plan for my life, whether I liked it or not. Instead of letting Satan steal my joy, I turned IMMEDIATELY to the Lord. I turned on a praise and worship CD, lay down on our couch, and started crying. I refused to ask the Why Lord? question this time. I just let his presence surround me as I worked through the grief. Why? Because, when Satan can steal your JOY, he makes you ineffective in being a witness for JESUS. Who wants to listen to a depressed Christian? He knows that if he cannot get you to turn away from God, he will just incapacitate you in your ability to shine. Adam always says, “God has done so much for me that if He never does anything else for me again, I will still serve Him.”

The Lord has turned our mourning into JOY. (Jeremiah 31:13). Our house is full of LIFE! Is Satan going to try to steal that from us….I’m sure he will. (John 10:10) We pray continually for God’s protection over our family. I am going to live the life that God has given us to the fullest!

I know….. you know….this is not always an easy thing to do. So what happens when the storm rolls in? Usually the power goes out. No power….no light. We head for the flashlight! A external light source. Sometimes the storms that roll into our lives are so overwhelming that we have to rely on that external source. Proverbs 18:10 says that “the Lord is our Strong Tower, the righteous run into it and are safe.” Let God’s power become a beacon of Hope when your next storm rolls in. Let the dark world around you look at you and say, “how can she hold up so well when all this stuff is happening to her?” Then, pull out that flashlight, and LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE!!

Shine On!

Tonya

Hide it under a bushel….NO!

Luke 11:33 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.

Matthew 5:14-15

Matthew 7:1-5

We listen to a lot of children’s songs in our house!  So much truth is conveyed in the simplicity of many of these songs. I love to hear Caroline learn to sing these songs. She is absorbing so much scripture through them.

This part of the song (hide it under a bushel) has always been convicting to me.  How many times have I hid my light around those around me so I wouldn’t stand out in the crowd.  When I was growing up, I was sometimes ashamed of my witness.  It was difficult to have to sit outside in the hallway during Halloween activities because I wasn’t allowed by my parents to participate in them.  Oh for a bushel on some of those days! But as I began to understand why I needed to take a stand against certain things, the bushel was something that I felt like I wanted  less and less.

What do you think about when you hear the word bushel?  For me, it is the produce stand…corn to be exact. I have vivid memories of sitting on the front porch shucking ears of corn out of a bushel.  A bushel….a unit of measure.

Matt. 7:1″Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

What is your unit of measure? Is it by your own standards? “Well, I go to church every time the door is open” or “I teach Sunday School“, “I send Christian emails“, “I don’t cuss“, “I don’t drink“, “I don’t watch those filthy movies“, “I don’t hang out with people like that“, or “I don’t think one should _________”. Oh boy, do I have a problem with this at times! It is so easy to compare others to your own standard. It makes us feel good about ourselves. It reminds me that I may not be perfect, but I am more spiritual than she is. What in the world? Who do we think we are that WE set the standards?

Christians are so very hard on each other.  The outside world sees this and is turned off by what they see.  We are so busy making sure everybody else is measuring up to our standards that we lose focus.  They see us abandon our brother that is going through a tough trial, or criticize each other within the church, or condemn non-Christians for not acting like Christians. It is when we are using that bushel that we are seen as “hypocrites“. Our light is there…it is just covered up and barely flickering…NOT EFFECTIVE.

Being a Christian should make you different….but it shouldn’t make you intolerable. So many times we get wrapped up in the do’s and dont’s of our theology that we forget about the simplicity of the Gospel.  Simply…Love God, Love People.  When we are consumed with those 2 principles, the judgmental mentality we have should disappear.  We realize that OUR righteousness is as filthy rags.  I am having to embrace a life of love.  My problems are no more important than someone else’s.  I don’t need to walk around making it obvious that I am in a bad mood.  I don’t need to “de-friend” people because they don’t live up to my standards. I don’t want people coming to me to find out what is wrong! I want people to be drawn to me because I have something in my life that they so desperately need to find out about! All it takes most of the time is a simple smile.  Is it fake some days….yes, indeed! Some days I am hurting, sometimes I am anxious, sometimes I am merely exhausted, but I always have HOPE (and Adam who has to hear me out on those days!)  So many people that we see day to day need this HOPE!  It is what separates us from the darkness in this world.

Don’t hide that precious Light under a bushel of intimidation or of condemnation. Set it on a candlestick and let it decorate your life!  “You are the Light of the World, a city that is set on a hill that cannot be hid!”  You have so much to offer to those around you. The ones that we are often critical of are the very ones that need to be filled with His Light.  Try spending more time around one of those people today….let them see the Light of the World in you.

Go Shine!!

Tonya

For the next few weeks I will be working on a lot of WMD’s so I will have a nice “stock pile” when school starts back.  It’s pretty easy for me to write them in the Summer…not so easy to write them when I’m working full time.  In the mean time, I want to re-post a series my wife did a few years ago.  She actually has a couple of outlines for new ones she is working on as well.

This little light of mine

Matthew 5:16

Feel free to join in…this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, this little light of mine, I’m gonna…

We recently celebrated Caroline’s 3^rd birthday.  During the days leading up to this party, she would say things like “I’m gonna blow my candles out and you sing ‘Happy Birthday‘?”  or “I get to open my presents?” or my favorite, “Momma, will you come to my party?”  She knew what parties were all about.  So to my surprise, at her party when I lit her candles I was shocked when she started to cry!  That’s right…cried!  I picked her up and explained the procedure and she calmed down really quickly and within seconds she was licking the icing off of the candle.  Sitting right beside her was her cousin, Hayden.  Less than 24 hours before, Caroline had sat beside Hayden as she blew the candles out on her cake.  So Caroline knew what to expect.  Why in the world did she decide to cry?

As a mother, I ponder these things.  If you know my darling Caroline, you know that she has the tendency to get distraught very easily thanks to her anxiety. She has to have a warming up period with most new activities.  She gets it honestly, because I was and at times am the same way. So, I chalk it up to her knowing that all eyes were going to be on her for a few minutes.  As soon as the song was over, she was fine.  A candle in and of itself is not scary.  She had seen them sitting in the ear of her Minnie Mouse cake all morning…no fear.  However, it was when that little flame was placed on top of it that things heated up.  Not a large flame, even with 3 candles side by side.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Our figurative lights vary in size.  When Adam writes these each week, he is a spotlight. 300+ eyes are on him for a few minutes to see what God has spoken to him.  When he does that small task of taking out the trash for me, he is those 3 candles.  When he talks about the Lord in areas of his Life that are a little risky, he is a beacon to draw people to the Savior.  Each light we choose to shine will draw a crowd.  People will wonder “what is it about that person that makes them do that?”

When Caroline knew that everyone’s focus was on her, it was scary, even though it was 3 little candles.  Today, eyes will be on you.  When you have the opportunity to do a random act of kindness, let your light shine.  When the time comes for you to go that second mile, let it shine brighter.  When you have the opportunity to share your Beacon of Hope with someone, have at it…burn with passion!  You are gonna feel a lot like Caroline, apprehensive, scared, intimidated, but go for it, it is worth it!!

As a child, my mother taught me to learn scripture. Memory verses as they are affectionately called.  I didn’t exactly enjoy it. As an adult, I treasure those verses that are a part of my everyday thoughts, and am extremely thankful that she persevered with me.  Every morning before she let me out of the car at school, she would pray a simple prayer with and over me, and as I was getting out of the car, she would simply say, “I love you and let your light shine!”.  Those scriptures are bound within my heart, and daily I walked the halls of my school with the constant reminder to let my light shine.  All through high school, I tried to let it shine.  There were only a handful of us that were vocal about our faith, so it was hard. I didn’t think it was noticed most of the time, but when yearbooks were signed, I generally had a good idea that people were noticing. I had several entries that commented on how much they admired my stand, or wished they could be as brave as me.  Caroline’s little candles were shining at the brightest part of the day, but they still made an impact.  We never know how effective our light is, but it is making a difference!  If her candles were lit at night, they would have made a more powerful impression.  So when we are among the darkness in this world, we should not hide our light under a bushel!  No, I’m gonna let it shine!

My mother is no longer with us, but what a lasting impact she made.  She didn’t live in the spotlight.  She lived a modest life.  She shared her candles everyday to everyone she came in contact with.  Sometimes, they were beacons.  A few times, they were spotlights, but for the most part, it was a day to day practice of lighting 3 candles and letting them shine.  They shined in my life!  I still walk the halls of a school in my job, and most mornings, I hear in my head “Let your light shine”  Her legacy lives on.  What will your light say about you today?  I don’t have spotlight moments often, but when I do, I want to get over the anxiety quickly and go for it with all I have.  On the days when it is just me and my 3 little candles, let me remember how powerful they are!  So today, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Until next time

Tonya

Revolution

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  — Ephesians 2: 1-2

“God want us to start a revolution against the governing powers of darkness that rule this world.”  —  Ronnie Hodge (slightly paraphrased)

Why is there so much suffering in the world?  Why doesn’t God do something?  Where is God?  Have you ever been asked these questions?  I wish there was a simple answer to them.  Here is the best that I can put it:  God made this world perfect…and everything in it was perfect.  God GAVE dominion of this world to Adam.  That was the way it was supposed to be from the beginning.  Unfortunately, upon eating the forbidden fruit, Adam took the dominion that God gave him, and handed it to Satan.  Evil is now the dominating force by which this world is influenced.

What if you chose to rebel against these powers?  What if the people who called themselves Christians began to humble themselves and really examine their lives and ask God to show them the things in their lives that do not honor Him?  What if they chose to stop doing those things?  What if the people who called themselves Christians began to pray for the lost?  What if they asked God to start a revolution and asked Him specifically to start with their very own lives?

As my church goes through this series, I am understanding more and more what it means to be a revolutionary.  For me, it is an absolute intolerance for any kind of evil in my life.  I refuse to look at pornography.  I refuse to lust after women other than my wife.  I refuse things in my life that I don’t really need but the world says I should have.  I refuse to put anything or anyone on a pedestal that is not the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I wish I could say that I just decided one day that I needed to stop all of my blatant, obvious sins and I stopped.  It didn’t happen that way at all.  I just began to replace those things with the things of God.  Instead of listening to the musical poison I always listened to, I started listening to preachers that I trusted preach the word of God.  Instead of watching the latest blockbuster movie, I watched cheesy Christian movies.  Instead of surfing the net for more mind poison, I surfed it for videos that honored God.  I found some really cool stuff:  Lifehouse’s “everything” skit,  Cardboard testimonies, Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill doing “How Great Thou Art.”  All stuff that brings the presence of God like crazy.  Somewhere in the middle of all of that replacing…God took away my evil desires.  I no longer HAD to do the right thing…I WANTED to!  The difference is night and day.

I am glad that I started my own personal revolution before my church began to teach it.  I didn’t realize that was what I was doing, but at least now it has a cool name…the revolution!  When my children entered my life, I believe I started my own revolution.  Not that I didn’t live for the Lord up until this point, I just became really intentional about it.  I thought about how little time I will get to spend with them.  With one about to turn 6 and the other just turning 4, it is all too clear that I will have even less time with them in my home than I thought.  I decided that I could live a holy, God-filled life for them.  I can make sure that during their years under my watch they remember that their daddy shunned evil and lived, really lived for and honored the name of Jesus Christ.  I wish I could say I did this because I was so ridiculously in love with God.  I did it for my kids.  The cool thing is, during this whole process, I have fallen ridiculously in love with God.

This isn’t to say that life becomes easier.  In many ways, it gets harder.  If you choose to be a revolutionary, you better put on the Ephesians 6 armor of God and start memorizing some scriptures…the very sword that you can use to fight and defeat the enemy.  This past Sunday I was asked to play my guitar for the worship team.  I had in my mind that it would be just like old times and I would just get in God’s presence and bask while worshipping Him with the instrument that I love to play.   To start with, BOTH of my Gibson Les Paul’s that I bought 20 years ago “happened” to break the night before I would play on Sunday.  They were in their case propped up…they fell over and those little falls broke them both.  I didn’t get angry (though I wanted to REALLY, REALLY bad), I just asked one of my best friends if I could borrow his Fender Strat.  He said yes.  While we were practicing before the service, my $500 Marshall amp (that I paid $200 for 16 years ago) just died.  Think about that…it died 20 minutes before I was about to play the actual song set and I had just lost my back-up guitar the night before.  During that service, the main projector didn’t work and there were all sorts of “technical” difficulties.  It was crazy.

Could it be that the powers of darkness only descend where there is the possibility of someone becoming a revolutionary? Satan can not touch me or my family without God‘s permission. I make sure that I am prayed up, read up, and that I stand up to those powers of darkness. I have two specific days of the week where I use the prayer of Jabez and say “Lord, may your hand be with me and keep evil from me.” I use the Lord’s prayer and say “lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.” Every once in a while I like to ask God to “cancel the Devil’s assignment against me.“ For the past several years, my wife and I have fasted. We don’t fast to impress God, but to get His attention and ask for the same things that Ezra asked for in chapter 8 verse 24 when he fasted. He asked for a safe journey for us (me and Tonya) and our children (Caroline and Jameson). I was reading it again and I saw the tail end of that verse…”with all our possessions.” I had never really thought to pray for my stuff. I thought it would have been kind of selfish for me to pray for my Les Paul’s and my Marshall. Ezra just let me know that it is okay. Yes, the devil found an opening and wiped out about 4 thousand dollars worth of my stuff. He tried to steal my joy and make me upset before I played that worship set. It almost worked.

One of the songs that we played was “Blessed be your name.”  The coolest part of the song says “you give and take away.”  God provided me with the means to buy my guitars (that I put in His rightful place for a few years).  God allowed Satan to destroy them.  It is only God who can give…it is only God who can take away.  Somewhere in that song set…God began to fill me up.  I didn’t care about the stuff…I just cared about my relationship with Him.  Satan had to beg Him for permission to do anything to my stuff.  God allowed it to see just how much my heart was still in that stuff.  I think I passed because I can still say “blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I know this is an exceptionally long WMD, but I have to say this.  I believe that God allowed the old to break so he can give me the new.  Here is why:  I have been saving for about 2 years for a new guitar and amp.  Of course, until now I didn’t NEED one, I just wanted one.  There is honestly no way I would have spent that much money on a guitar that I really didn’t need.  It just would have felt really selfish.  During the last week of school one of my classes did something for me that I have never experienced.  They made me a poster.  Now classes have done things like that before, but this class, my 2^nd block Algebra I class, saved up money all year long and gave me $150 and told me that I specifically had to use that money to buy the guitar that they had heard me talk about for the past 2 years.  Do you reckon God knew?  I just couldn’t believe how ridiculously good God was to me.

He gives.

He takes away.

He gives.

He takes away.

He does with His stuff what He wants.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Start your revolution today.

Later

Adam

One More Last Chance

“In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up…”  — Luke 16: 23

For the first time in I don’t know when, I haven’t been in my home church for two consecutive Sundays.  This past Sunday, since we were on vacation, my wife and I just went driving around looking for somewhere to attend.  We saw a sign at an old school Baptist church that said they were having a southern gospel quartet.  It was fantastic! 

Just like I remember from my “traditional Baptist” days the preacher stood before the congregation at the end of it all and gave “the invitation.”  He asked us all to check our hearts and see if there is anything in there that didn’t need to be there.  He asked us if we were right…if we were saved.  I, of course, examined my heart and decided I didn’t need to be saved for the 137^th time…though it is hard for me to resist the chance to be absolutely sure.  So the quartet sang a couple verses of “Just as I am” and nobody went forward.

I couldn’t help but think about that rich man in Luke chapter 16.  What would he give to have that opportunity that I just experienced?  When you read the story, you find that he knew who Father Abraham was.  Was this knowledge that God forced into his mind upon death?  Or, did this guy know about Father Abraham because he had heard from the preachers of the day and basically knew what was recorded in those holy scrolls?  I think he knew.  But just like so many believe today, he thought he had tomorrow.  Eventually, he ran out of tomorrows and verse 23 says “in hell.” 

What would he have done if he could have left hell after over 2,000 years and attended that old school church service?  I believe we all know that he would have ran down there, fallen on his knees, and begged for mercy, grace, and forgiveness.  

So, maybe you are reading your last chance.  Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?  Have you repented of your sins?  If you have, just breathe a prayer of thanks to the Lord.  If you haven’t…REPENT!!!  True repentance means you are sorry enough to be humble and admit that you need saving.  It also involves being sorry enough to actually change the way that you live.  I can guarantee you that the once rich man would do all of these things if he were given another chance.

Will you?

Later

Adam

Because You Did This

Your sins are forgiven, you will not die.  But because you did this, the child born to you shall die.  — The prophet Nathan to King David in 2 Samuel 12:14

Do you believe that once you are saved that you are always saved?  Do you believe that if you commit a sin after you are saved that you are on your way back to Hell?  Welcome to the two extremes of Christianity.  One extreme is full of grace, the other extreme is full of judgment.  I could take a bunch of verses from the Bible and present a pretty good argument either way.  So, which one is right?  Honestly…I don’t know.

But, here is what I do know.  Like nearly everything else in dealing with God, it is the motive of the person’s heart that tells the whole story.  When I first became saved, I loved hearing “once saved always saved.”  This gave me a license to live any way that I wanted.  I had found a technical “loophole” in the Bible.  I had done Romans 10:9.  I confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart that Jesus was Lord…I was “saved.”  I had the box checked in God’s grade book that allowed a person into Heaven.  If someone asked me if I was saved, I told them the truth…”I said the prayer!”

After a year or two of that, I visited another church with my friend.  I heard the term “backsliding.”  I learned in about 30 minutes that I was on my way back to Hell.  This was terrifying to me.  If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…I started to be wise that day.  Over the course of the next year or so, I became a “rule keeper.”  Although I wasn’t a very good one, I needed to keep God’s rules so I could go to Heaven.  When I sinned, even did the slightest thing wrong, I needed to say the words “God, will you forgive me?”  As soon as I said the words, I was finally back in right standing with God…until I did it again.  Then, I was on my way back to Hell because there was sin in my life.  This pattern repeated over and over.  I really wanted to be right with God, but sin just seemed to be inevitable.  It seemed to be looming around every corner every day.  I was so legalistic that I remember going to a rock concert of one of my favorite bands of the day.  I was convicted the whole time I was there.  As soon as it was over, I said “forgive me Lord” and honestly thought that He wrote my name back in the book of Life.  For those 3 hours I was rocking out, had I died…I would have gone to Hell.  Had Jesus come back…I would have been “left behind.“  But, as it was, I had found a way to do what I wanted, then use the “God’s forgiveness” loophole to be right back in a right standing with Him.

I hope you see the absurdity in this.  The whole problem was that I wanted a right “standing” with God…not a right relationship.  I didn’t really know God.  I only knew what others had said about Him.  I didn’t read my Bible for myself, I only listened to others tell me about what they had learned.  I made no attempt to love God, but I made every attempt to use God however I could to make me feel better about myself.  I used Him to make me feel more comfortable about what I was doing at the moment.  I also used Him to make me feel better about where I would spend eternity.  As long as I said “forgive me for that Lord,” He was obligated to do so…therefore, I was good to go.

Now…I realize I didn‘t have a clue.  When David committed his sin with Bathsheba, he was far away from God.  God used the prophet Nathan to reel David back in.  David asked for forgiveness.  Then, Nathan told him he was forgiven.  But, look at the rest of the verse…because you did this, the child born to you shall die.  Whoa!  That’s not fair…what did the child do?  David should be the one who dies!  Right?  I mean, he did the crime…he should pay the fine or do the time!

What hurts me now more than anything is how I treated my Lord and Savior for many years.  I sinned…a lot, and yes I knew better.  It wasn’t “making mistakes,“ it was committing sin.  Some were out of ignorance…most were out of good ’ole blatant disobedience.  There I was thinking “He’ll just forgive me!”  The good news was I was right.  The bad news is that somebody had to pay the price for those sins.  Even though I wasn’t listening, God was telling me the same thing He told David…”Adam, your sins are forgiven.  But because you did this…My one and only Son…Jesus Christ…died.”

Lord, with all my heart I don’t want to hurt you anymore.  Help me love you, really love you until I draw my last breath.

Later

Adam

Ruined to Sin

Mark 10:46-52

Psalm 19:13

In Mark 10, there is a story of a blind man.  He knew Jesus was passing by which means he knew he had a window of opportunity. He cried out to Jesus ”Have mercy on me!”  Everyone was telling him to “be quiet” and ”hush!”  ”Don’t bother Jesus!”  But, Jesus heard his cry!  Jesus said “come!”  Then everyone changed their tune, they said “cheer up, He’s calling you”  Then, Jesus did something I used to think was kind of strange, he said ”what do you want?”  WHAT?!?!  The guys is blind!  YOU, Jesus, of ALL people know he wants to SEE!  Especially since he’s heard that you‘ve done it for other people!

Why in the world do you think Jesus asked the question when he knew the answer?

I think He did it because he wanted the blind man to really think for one last moment what the consequences would be when he received his sight.  You may think “consequences?????”  Yes, consequences.  That blind man had to have become “comfortable” in the darkness.  He was probably used to counting steps to get to places and running through his familiar daily routines.  Things were about to change for him…Big Time!  Then, after careful contemplation, he made up his mind.  He said ”I want to SEE!”  Then, Jesus gave him his wish.  That blind man opened his eyes and saw for the very first time in his life!  He was no longer bound by the darkness.

Many, many, many, many…maybe MOST people that call themselves “Christians” are bound by the darkness.  Most people have their daily and weekly  “routines” that they like to follow, much like the blind man, but they never draw us closer to Him and they never point anyone else toward Him!  We never break free into a life in which we “see” God working in our lives!  We also never “see” sin for the absolute vile, wicked thing that it really is.  Sin just becomes…not that big of a deal.

What if Jesus were to ask us the same question?  “What is it you want me to do for you?”  What if you said “I want to see as you see!”  Now that, my friend,  is a dangerous answer.  You can’t pray that without things changing!  Just like when you go see a 1:00 p.m. movie and you get comfortable in the dark, then you walk outside…WHOA…your eyes are going to have to do some adjusting!

All of a sudden, you must tell others about Him!  What if we all get to watch at the Great White Throne Judgment and you see a friend or relative standing there before Jesus.  You see Jesus tell them “depart from me, I never knew you!”  They look at you and say “you KNEW about this?  Why in the World  didn’t you TELL ME!?”  How would that make you feel?  You need to “see” that now, for only now can something be done about it!

All of a sudden, you must live right!  You don’t have time to waste doing things you know are wrong!  You must drink in His Word and Pray and have as much of His presence in your life as possible because it’s like water…you just have to have it!

All of a sudden, you are ruined to sin.  What I mean is, others may be able to get high on drugs and see pink elephants and stars and all sorts of other crazy things that are just “funny!”  But, since your eyes are opened, if you do it, you “see” Jesus coming back and you see yourself being left behind and you find that you just have to find an altar and kneel and BEG His forgiveness so you can be made CLEAN and WHOLE once more!

Today, tell God you want to SEE!  Tell Him you want to be CLEAN!  Tell Him there is nothing more important than being right with Him!  Ask Him to RUIN YOU TO SIN that you may be found blameless on the day of His coming!

Listen…I know I sound all crazy and hardcore!  Reading back over this…even I think I’m a little bit crazy!  But, I’m telling you…I can’t imagine life any other way!  I’m not better than anybody.  But, I am better OFF than most because I have experienced the benefits of following Him!

I just don’t think anybody reading this has the time that I had to be complacent.  I Thank God that He was so patient with me and gave me years to drag my feet and not take Him and His Word seriously.

Nobody has that luxury anymore.  He’s coming…and He’s coming SOON!

Are you ready?

Later

My Lord and My God “ ____________ said to Him “my Lord and my God!”  — John 20:28 I left that blank on purpose.  If you look it up in the Bible, it is Thomas, someone we have somehow unfairly labeled a “doubter,” that goes in the blank.  I left it blank because I want you to read it and put in your own name.  Have you ever called Jesus your Lord and your God?  I’m trying to remember when He became both to me. The best I can recollect, God was simply “God” from ages 0 to 16.  Because I grew up in church, I can’t think of a time where I didn’t believe that God existed.  However, that knowledge alone didn’t save me.  Plenty of people believe in God.  Unfortunately, that knowledge alone does not save them.  It doesn’t save Satan, so it doesn’t save us.  In the book of James, he sounds almost sarcastic about it:  “You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that…and shudder.”  (2:19) In June of 1991, Jesus became “my God.”  I actually said the prayer…”Lord, will you forgive me of my sins?  Will you come into my heart and live in me?  I know you died for me.  I also know you rose again.  Help me live for you.”  This should have absolutely transformed my life.  Unfortunately, I didn’t let it.  This was right before my Junior and Senior year of high school.  Jesus would remain “my God” until I finished college.  When I look back, Jesus tried to spare me a lot of hurt during those years.  He became “my God” at what should have been just the right time.  I had never had sex, I had never cussed, and I had never hung out with the wrong crowd.  I would do them all over the next 5 to 10 years following my “salvation. “ Why?  I went to church!  I said the prayer!  What went wrong? I wish I could remember the date…I don’t even remember the year.  I’ve even probably tried to put a date on it and wrote it in one of my past WMDs.  I just remember that there was a period of time where everything, absolutely everything pointed toward making Jesus MY Lord.  I do remember how it all got started.  I had been ignoring “my God” for quite some time.  I used to wake up with my alarm clock radio tuned to 93.3 the Planet…the local hard rock station.  Somehow, it got knocked back to 89.3 “His Radio.”  So my alarm clock goes off and I wake up to the words “You have got to get yourself in the Word! You must drink in the Word of God!”  That might not have been the exact words…but I still remember the gist after all these years.  Later that day I purposefully turned to His Radio and heard a song that said Jesus was the best thing in life.  Over the next few weeks, stuff like this happened over and over.  A random flyer came in the mail inviting me to go to a revival at church I had never heard of before.  I “happened” to mention it to one of my buddies and he said that was where his mom and dad were going to church.  We attended the revival and I was convicted like crazy.  I went home…I was all alone.  I knelt by my bed and told Jesus I was sorry for the way I had treated Him.  I asked Him to help me not just believe this stuff…but actually do it.  He had finally become…”My Lord.” Satan doesn’t mind if you believe in God.  He doesn’t even mind if you call Him “my God.”  He doesn’t care if you have “Christian” listed under “Religious views” on Facebook.  What he does not want is for Jesus to be Lord of your life.  If Jesus is Lord, you actually make an attempt to live for Him.  I can’t even tell you how the fury of Hell comes at you when you truly make Jesus Lord.  If you don’t believe me, go tell your friends that you are thinking that you don’t want to have sex again (or at all) until you get married.  Tell them you aren’t going to look at pornography anymore because Jesus says it is Adultery.  Tell your friends you want to start phasing out the junk you listen to and only listen to stuff that lifts up and honors the name of the Lord.  When gossip is being started and people are encouraging you to fight…tell them you want to be a peacemaker like Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 5.  The point is…you will get grilled!!! You will be laughed at and it will be ridiculously hard to make those commitments and keep that kind of stand.  Why?  Because Satan knows that a true follower of Christ is the only person that can truly make an eternal difference. Who is Jesus to you?  Is He just “God” who exists out there somewhere?  Is He “your God?”  If He is your God you probably go to church, read your Bible every once in a while, listen to Christian radio every once in a while…even have the fish on your car.  Or…is He the Lord of your life?  He calls the shots…no matter what it costs you. You are going to live by faith in Him and His Word knowing…KNOWING that He only has your best interest in mind. If He isn’t your Lord…please make Him your Lord today! Later Adam

The Lord

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  — Psalm 23:1

I don’t know how many times I’ve read or quoted this verse.  I hate to admit this, but I think up until very recently I have always focused on the last part…I shall not want.  I remember the first time I read it probably 15 years ago.  I thought “why would you not want the Lord?”  I honestly thought it was the Lord that the writer didn’t want.  Of course, eventually I read the rest of the Psalm and I began to understand that it meant that the Lord would provide for my every need and I will never be found wanting for anything as long as I allow Him to lead me as my shepherd.  He always has my best interest in mind.  Now that I think about this, it is interesting that there are basically two groups of people in the world.  There are those who allow the Lord to be their shepherd, these people generally see themselves as more than blessed and are content.  Then there are those who wander off and are constantly searching for better…something more.  I’ve been in both groups…I like the Lord being my Shepherd!

I’m writing this particular devotional because I always do with Psalm 23:1 exactly what I did in the first paragraph.  I always talk about the end of it…I shall not want.  I talk about how I was discontent, now I’m content.  I talk about how life is a million times better for ME.  The part of the verse I should be focused on is “The Lord.”  Who is the Lord?  Well, He is God the Father in the Old Testament.  He is God the Son in the 4 gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  He is God the Holy Spirit from Acts through Titus.  He is King of Kings and Lord of Lord in the book of the Revelation given to John.  He is the one who loves me so much that He gave His life for me.  My default destination was Hell.  I didn’t have to do anything to be placed on that road…I was already condemned.  He loved me so much that He took away my condemnation and gave me righteousness.  I didn’t have to try to do right and earn it…my Lord went ahead and gave it to me.  Yes, the LORD…He is my shepherd!

I read a little bit about good shepherds and bad shepherds.  Bad shepherds really shouldn’t even be shepherds.  They don’t really care about the sheep.  The sheep are simply their source of income and are treated accordingly.  If one gets sick, they would just as soon kill it immediately to keep the others from getting sick.  They don’t watch out to make sure that they only eat from green pastures.  Instead, they let them stay in one place and destroy the ground and eat until they destroy the roots and they get sick from worms in the ground.  They let them drink from whatever water source is available, not the still waters that good shepherds lead them to.  They are very harsh and very mean to the sheep.  It is obvious that the sheep are not loved.  Isn’t this the picture of Satan?  It’s pretty easy to tell who he is leading.  People by the millions in America are drinking from the fountains of sex and drugs. Many get sexually transmitted diseases, and drugs cause so many to deteriorate extremely fast.  Many land in our prison systems…and their shepherd doesn’t even care.  I watch kids every day throw their education away simply because their shepherd says “do what you want.“  Their shepherd could not care less about their future.  Satan, the bad shepherd, never has the best interest of his flock in mind.

On the other hand, good shepherds keep watch over the flock.  They are constantly looking ahead.  They are consistently checking for disease, fighting off enemies, making sure the sheep are never in fear and making sure that they are healthy.  He wants them to lie down in green pastures.  There is none of this making SOME grass available, the good Shepherd wants to lead you to the BEST pasture.  There is none of this drinking from nasty water that will make you sick…only the still water that truly satisfies.  There is none of this wandering off and letting the enemies that want to devour the sheep have their way.  The good Shepherd will go and find that sheep, and if he happens to see the enemy…He destroys that enemy.  The happiest, most content and most caring people that I know proudly say “The Lord…He is my Shepherd.”

There are two roads.  One of these roads leads to destruction.  If you have never made a decision to make Jesus, the good Shepherd, Lord of your life…you are already on that road.  All you have to do to walk the path to Hell…is nothing.  It is very easy because there is one rule and one rule only… “do what you want.”  The other road, the narrow one, has restrictions.  If you really think about the restrictions, they are designed to keep you healthy and content.  The restrictions are not so the good Shepherd can boast how big and bad He is, though He is, but because He truly loves His flock and wants to lead them in the path of righteousness.

For every person that truly puts their trust in Him, verse 6 is coming.  Not only can this life be free of disease.  Not only can you be wholly and completely cared for.  Not only can you have a friend that sticks closer than a brother.  Not only can you be content with what you have and love God with all your heart…soon and very soon verse 6 is coming!

I will dwell in the house of the Lord…forever!

Which shepherd are you following?

Later

Adam