Isaiah 26:4
"Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength."
I love this verse because at just simplifies the entire Bible down to one thing, "Trust in the Lord."
Just think how better off we would be as a nation and a people if we put our trust in the Lord and not in man. If, during our many moments of weakness, we turned to God for help and drew from His strength instead of making rash decisions based on our flesh, we would avoid a lot of heart aches, regrets and bad decisions.
At times we want to "go it alone" or "follow our instincts" or "go with our heart" but all these end up in a decision of the flesh when instead we need to seek the Lord and trust in Him no matter what the crisis or the concern.
Psalm 31:3
"For You are my rock and my fortress;
Therefore, for Your name’s sake,
Lead me and guide me."
Nahum 1:7
"The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble;
And He knows those who trust in Him. "
Do you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ today?
Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ today?
Does He know you?
Mike
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
GOD IS WITH YOU
Psalm 139:7
"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from our presence?" (NKJV)
Sometimes we feel that God is distant and not near us. We feel that sometimes He has left us all alone when we are struggling through a difficult time. This psalm tells us that God is always with us and that maybe the reason we feel distant is because we are the ones that have been pulling away or have pulled away.
When we are involved in an area of sin, we tend to pull away from God. We don't want to pray, read the Bible or go to church. We feel guilty and want to avoid the conviction and the feeling of condemnation.
In reality, this is when we need to draw nearer to Him. If we have stumbled, we need the assurance of His love, mercy and grace to restore us and if we are stuck in darkness and living in sin without Jesus, we need to come to Him and ask forgiveness and accept Him as our Savior.
The Apostle Paul quotes 3 separate OT verses when he said in Hebrews 13:5:
"He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (NKJV)
And Jesus told His disciples before He ascended into Heaven in Matthew 28:20:
"...I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NJKV)
When you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, He is always with you because the Spirit of God lives within you. He is with you today, lean on Him and not on your own strength.
If you have not accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He is still there with outstretched arms just waiting for you to come to Him. Come to Him and find rest!
Mike
"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from our presence?" (NKJV)
Sometimes we feel that God is distant and not near us. We feel that sometimes He has left us all alone when we are struggling through a difficult time. This psalm tells us that God is always with us and that maybe the reason we feel distant is because we are the ones that have been pulling away or have pulled away.
When we are involved in an area of sin, we tend to pull away from God. We don't want to pray, read the Bible or go to church. We feel guilty and want to avoid the conviction and the feeling of condemnation.
In reality, this is when we need to draw nearer to Him. If we have stumbled, we need the assurance of His love, mercy and grace to restore us and if we are stuck in darkness and living in sin without Jesus, we need to come to Him and ask forgiveness and accept Him as our Savior.
The Apostle Paul quotes 3 separate OT verses when he said in Hebrews 13:5:
"He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (NKJV)
And Jesus told His disciples before He ascended into Heaven in Matthew 28:20:
"...I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NJKV)
When you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, He is always with you because the Spirit of God lives within you. He is with you today, lean on Him and not on your own strength.
If you have not accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He is still there with outstretched arms just waiting for you to come to Him. Come to Him and find rest!
Mike
Thursday, October 1, 2009
GOD'S WAY
Proverbs 16:25
"There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death." (NKJV)
This verse is identical to 14:12 so since Solomon repeated it, it must be important...
People tend to want to do things or live a certain way because it "just feels right" or they are "following their heart." We certainly have a free will to do so but we cannot expect God to bless it or approve of it just because it feels right to us.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us about our hearts:
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?" (NKJV)
This proverb is telling us that Man's ways lead to destruction but God's way leads to salvation.
We cannot trust our own "worldly" wisdom because it is centered on ourselves and not on God. As I wrote yesterday, God wants us to abide (or dwell, remain) in His word and use His wisdom and live according to His ways.
Mike
"There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death." (NKJV)
This verse is identical to 14:12 so since Solomon repeated it, it must be important...
People tend to want to do things or live a certain way because it "just feels right" or they are "following their heart." We certainly have a free will to do so but we cannot expect God to bless it or approve of it just because it feels right to us.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us about our hearts:
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?" (NKJV)
This proverb is telling us that Man's ways lead to destruction but God's way leads to salvation.
We cannot trust our own "worldly" wisdom because it is centered on ourselves and not on God. As I wrote yesterday, God wants us to abide (or dwell, remain) in His word and use His wisdom and live according to His ways.
Mike
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
ABIDE IN CHRIST
John 15:4
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (NKJV)
The other night I was at a Bible study with some friends and we were studying what it meant to "abide in Christ." We see this word a lot in the New Testament and specifically in the Gospel and letters of John the Apostle. So what does the word mean?
In the original language it means "not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually."
In keeping in the same theme as my last post regarding Jesus as our Lord, if we claim He is our Lord then we will abide (or continue or dwell) in Him. We will not be living a deliberate lifestyle of sin. We will not say we are His followers and yet live a life that is not accurate with that profession.
1 John 2:6
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (NKJV)
1 John 3:6
"No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." (ESV)
Can we say that about ourselves? If we claim Him as our Lord and Savior and tell people that we are "Christians" and "believe" in Jesus, do our lives reflect that statement? That is what abiding means. It means to not just hear His Word but to put it into practice and having it be a reflection of your life.
We will not continue a life of deliberate sin if we are abiding in Christ.
1 John 3:9
"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." (ESV)
If we are abiding (dwelling) in Christ, we will not abide (dwell) in sin.
Mike
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (NKJV)
The other night I was at a Bible study with some friends and we were studying what it meant to "abide in Christ." We see this word a lot in the New Testament and specifically in the Gospel and letters of John the Apostle. So what does the word mean?
In the original language it means "not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually."
In keeping in the same theme as my last post regarding Jesus as our Lord, if we claim He is our Lord then we will abide (or continue or dwell) in Him. We will not be living a deliberate lifestyle of sin. We will not say we are His followers and yet live a life that is not accurate with that profession.
1 John 2:6
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (NKJV)
1 John 3:6
"No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." (ESV)
Can we say that about ourselves? If we claim Him as our Lord and Savior and tell people that we are "Christians" and "believe" in Jesus, do our lives reflect that statement? That is what abiding means. It means to not just hear His Word but to put it into practice and having it be a reflection of your life.
We will not continue a life of deliberate sin if we are abiding in Christ.
1 John 3:9
"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." (ESV)
If we are abiding (dwelling) in Christ, we will not abide (dwell) in sin.
Mike
Monday, September 28, 2009
Just Lord or OUR Lord?
Psalm 8:1
"O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens! " (NJKV)
This verse was read yesterday in church and a something came to mind so I thought I would share today. The neat thing is that the writer, David says "O Lord, OUR Lord." How many of us declare Jesus as OUR Lord? We know from Phillipians 2:11 that one day everyone will confess Jesus as Lord but for some He will be their Lord and Judge while others who have committed their life to Him will look upon Him as their Lord and Savior.
It seems that many are quick to accept Him as Savior but is He Lord? Does He rule and reign in your life? Where is He in the line of priorities in your life? In the back or the front? Is He someone that you only think about and talk to on Sundays?
We sometimes wonder why we don't hear from Him or feel that our prayers are not answered or feel that God is distant. Can it be that it is because we are the ones that are moving away from Him? That we are the ones becoming distant? If we want to hear from God and feel Him in our lives, we need to draw near to Him, pray to Him and spend time with Him through His Word.
Jeremiah 29:13
"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." (NKJV)
Our pastor read this verse yesterday as well and I wanted to close with it because it tells us what we need to do in order to find God and make Him our Lord. Jeremiah was prophesying regarding the 70 year Babylonian Captivity of the Jews and said that they would find the Lord God and He would restore them when they FIRST sought after Him.
Maybe some of you are in a captivity of your own and feel distant from God. Maybe it is a sin or a sinful lifestyle that you are leading. God wants you to seek Him with ALL your heart and as verse 14 from Jeremiah 29 says:
"I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity;"
Let Him set your free today!
Mike
"O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens! " (NJKV)
This verse was read yesterday in church and a something came to mind so I thought I would share today. The neat thing is that the writer, David says "O Lord, OUR Lord." How many of us declare Jesus as OUR Lord? We know from Phillipians 2:11 that one day everyone will confess Jesus as Lord but for some He will be their Lord and Judge while others who have committed their life to Him will look upon Him as their Lord and Savior.
It seems that many are quick to accept Him as Savior but is He Lord? Does He rule and reign in your life? Where is He in the line of priorities in your life? In the back or the front? Is He someone that you only think about and talk to on Sundays?
We sometimes wonder why we don't hear from Him or feel that our prayers are not answered or feel that God is distant. Can it be that it is because we are the ones that are moving away from Him? That we are the ones becoming distant? If we want to hear from God and feel Him in our lives, we need to draw near to Him, pray to Him and spend time with Him through His Word.
Jeremiah 29:13
"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." (NKJV)
Our pastor read this verse yesterday as well and I wanted to close with it because it tells us what we need to do in order to find God and make Him our Lord. Jeremiah was prophesying regarding the 70 year Babylonian Captivity of the Jews and said that they would find the Lord God and He would restore them when they FIRST sought after Him.
Maybe some of you are in a captivity of your own and feel distant from God. Maybe it is a sin or a sinful lifestyle that you are leading. God wants you to seek Him with ALL your heart and as verse 14 from Jeremiah 29 says:
"I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity;"
Let Him set your free today!
Mike
Friday, September 25, 2009
SMART OR FOOLISH?
1 Corinthians 1:25
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. "
So many people thing you have to be a dummy or ignorant to believe in God. I don't like to think of myself as a dummy. I am an engineer and an analytical thinker and when I was first seriously pondered the existence of God, I was overwhelmed with the extreme scientific evidence and the sheer simplicity all at the same time.
Many famous thinkers of our time believed in God. Blaise Pascal, Sir Issac Newton, Michael Faraday, Robert Boyle, Galileo, Johannes Kepler and Albert Einstein to name a few. Now I have to add that while some of these men did not believe in a personal God, they did not let their intellectual wisdom cloud their spiritual thinking.
That is the problem people have today. They think they are too smart to believe in the Bible or to believe in God or to believe that God came in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Paul said further in 1 Cor 1 that Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews and Greeks because the Jews wanted signs and wonders, which Jesus refused to give when they asked and the Greeks wanted wisdom. Both of these were confused by the work on the cross. When the Pharisees asked for a sign, Jesus said the only sign He would give was His resurrection by referencing Jonah and his spending 3 days in the belly of the fish.
There will come a day when all man's wisdom and worldly intelligence will be compared to the "foolishness" of Christ crucified and will fall away and leave those smart, intellectual, wise and intelligent people eternally separated from God forever.
We simply need to just surrender to God and seek a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Mike
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. "
So many people thing you have to be a dummy or ignorant to believe in God. I don't like to think of myself as a dummy. I am an engineer and an analytical thinker and when I was first seriously pondered the existence of God, I was overwhelmed with the extreme scientific evidence and the sheer simplicity all at the same time.
Many famous thinkers of our time believed in God. Blaise Pascal, Sir Issac Newton, Michael Faraday, Robert Boyle, Galileo, Johannes Kepler and Albert Einstein to name a few. Now I have to add that while some of these men did not believe in a personal God, they did not let their intellectual wisdom cloud their spiritual thinking.
That is the problem people have today. They think they are too smart to believe in the Bible or to believe in God or to believe that God came in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Paul said further in 1 Cor 1 that Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews and Greeks because the Jews wanted signs and wonders, which Jesus refused to give when they asked and the Greeks wanted wisdom. Both of these were confused by the work on the cross. When the Pharisees asked for a sign, Jesus said the only sign He would give was His resurrection by referencing Jonah and his spending 3 days in the belly of the fish.
There will come a day when all man's wisdom and worldly intelligence will be compared to the "foolishness" of Christ crucified and will fall away and leave those smart, intellectual, wise and intelligent people eternally separated from God forever.
We simply need to just surrender to God and seek a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Mike
Thursday, September 24, 2009
RELY ON THE LORD
Deuteronomy 32:36-37
"For the Lord will judge His people
And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And there is no one remaining, bond or free.
He will say: ‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge? " (NKJV)
In this verse the phrase "will judge His people" means "will be a judge for", "plead a cause for", or "to vindicate" and the imperfect tense means that it is a continuing act that is not yet complete.
God was telling the nation of Israel that He would have compassion on them but not until they relinquished all trust in their own efforts and in the false gods in whom they took refuge.
The same is true for us to today. We will never truly experience the fullness of God's grace and power unless we truly surrender to Him. God does not share His glory and sometimes He will break us down and strip us of our own strength and ability just so we will depend on Him and in that He gets the glory and not us.
Look at what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:
"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."(NKJV)
In the midst of our own weakness is when God is the strongest.
When people that are not saved see God do amazing things through people that could not have done these things on their own, God gets the credit and the glory and this acts as a testimony to those who see and may lead them to the Lord.
So surrender to God, rely on Him and His strength and let Him use you in miraculous ways and let the Lord God of Heaven be GLORIFIED!
"For the Lord will judge His people
And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And there is no one remaining, bond or free.
He will say: ‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge? " (NKJV)
In this verse the phrase "will judge His people" means "will be a judge for", "plead a cause for", or "to vindicate" and the imperfect tense means that it is a continuing act that is not yet complete.
God was telling the nation of Israel that He would have compassion on them but not until they relinquished all trust in their own efforts and in the false gods in whom they took refuge.
The same is true for us to today. We will never truly experience the fullness of God's grace and power unless we truly surrender to Him. God does not share His glory and sometimes He will break us down and strip us of our own strength and ability just so we will depend on Him and in that He gets the glory and not us.
Look at what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:
"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."(NKJV)
In the midst of our own weakness is when God is the strongest.
When people that are not saved see God do amazing things through people that could not have done these things on their own, God gets the credit and the glory and this acts as a testimony to those who see and may lead them to the Lord.
So surrender to God, rely on Him and His strength and let Him use you in miraculous ways and let the Lord God of Heaven be GLORIFIED!
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