Month: May 2019

May 31, 2019

Show Concern for Others

4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. — Philippians 2:4


Phil. 2:1-5 NLT


If we have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, we will always show the love that we have for others. We must always put Jesus first, then others next.  The only way the world will know that we love Jesus is if we show that love to them and to each other.  Jesus loved us to the point of laying down His life for us, even while we were still sinners.  How much of your life are you willing to lay down to witness to your neighbors?  Laying down our lives for others is about more than just taking time to talk to them, it is also about living a Holy life before them.  Jesus has commanded us and He has also given us the power to speak words of life to those that He puts in our paths.  But they won’t listen to us, if our walk doesn’t reflect our talk.  As the saying goes, people don’t care what we know until they know that we care.  Let each of us show how much we care by showing compassion in every situation. 

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-31-2019

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May 30, 2019

“Come and Talk With Me”

8  My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”  And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” — Psalm 27:8 NLT 

Psalm 27:7-10 NLT

As Christians, we are bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We serve Him because we love Him. Our prayers should not be a “to do” list for God. Good morning, God, here is what I need for You to do for me today. Got it? Good, I will talk to You again soon, maybe tomorrow.  That is not prayer, my friend, that is what you might say to your employees, but not to God. Is He interested in your tiniest need?  Yes, He is, but He is also the King of Kings. He deserves our respect. As this verse from Psalms says: “Come and talk with me”,  with me not to me.  After you have talked, be silent and let God speak to you. He already knows your needs and He already knows His answer.  He doesn’t need to think about it overnight.  Just rest in His arms for a few minutes and God’s Holy Spirit will not only give you the answer but will help you understand the answer.

31 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.— Isaiah 40:31 NKJV

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-30-2019

May 29, 2019

“I Want to Know Christ”

10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death — Phil 3:10 NLT
Phil. 3:7-11 NLT

Can you imagine the power that was manifested when Jesus was resurrected from the grave? There must have been tremendous spiritual warfare occurring around that location and that time in history.  We have that same power available to us to use for God’s glory today. Our mortal bodies are rotting away, but our Spirits should be getting stronger each day as we allow God to renew them. Paul says the problems we have today are trivial and temporary compared to the glory they will produce. When we endure small problems here, they produce a greater glory that will last an eternity. So, each day we should be focusing on Jesus and looking forward to the things that we cannot see now, but God says when they are manifested in the future, they will last forever. So, when troubles seem many and satan is trying to defeat you at every turn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”  We need to learn to walk in that glory and grace and experience that power.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-29-2019

May 28, 2019

“Become A Fool To Be Truly Wise”

18 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. — 1 Cor. 3:18 NLT

1 Cor. 3:18-23 NLT

It is good to have knowledge, but just having knowledge is not being wise. Wisdom is the application of that knowledge to life situations. As we are told in Proverbs “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.  To discover Who God is and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is the first step. In the book of James, we are told to ask God for wisdom and he will give it to us abundantly. Reading commentaries and listening to sermons can add to our knowledge, but for wisdom, we need to go straight to the source. No matter how wise someone thinks they are and no matter how much we respect them and their ministry, we need to always check everything we hear to see if it aligns with the Holy Scriptures. There is a lot of misinformation being taught as Scriptural. Don’t be deceived.  God is waiting to give you more wisdom. Don’t be caught up with a person’s charisma or their passion. There is only one perfect person and that is Jesus Christ. Humans make errors and it is up to each of us to discern the truth and walk in it.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-28-2019

May 27, 2019

“With All Of Your Heart”

5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart;  do not depend on your own understanding.  — Proverbs 3:5 NLT

 Proverbs 3:5-8 NLT

This may well be one of the best known and most repeated verses in the Bible.  What exactly does God want each of us to take away from this verse? Does it mean that we should realize that God is much more intelligent than we are?  He is, of course, but is there more here in this verse?  Could it be a rebuke to all of those self-help programs that people spend so much time, effort and money on only to find that when they have finished those programs nothing has really changed?  Is this verse a directive that says, you can’t help yourself, you need Jesus?  Could it be the first step in our coming to salvation?  After all, if we could help ourselves, if we could clean ourselves up, then it would have been totally unnecessary for Jesus to die. Jesus died on the cross to accomplish for us what we can never do for ourselves.  The natural, carnal mind will never understand this.  We must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us to have faith in God and to trust Him with all of our hearts.  Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance we will never understand the depth nor the width of what God wants to do for us and through us.  Our understanding is a broken reed that will support little or no weight.  God’s wisdom is a staff of strength that will bear up under any burden.  Learn to lean on Him, His wisdom and His understanding in the good times as well as the rough patches.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-27-2019

May 26, 2019

Obedience Shows Our Love For God

5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. — 1 John 2:5 NLT

1 John 2:3-8 NLT


Since God loved us so much that He gave Himself on the cross for our redemption, we should live our lives for His glory. Living that lifestyle and showing love for each other is how the world can see that we belong to Jesus Christ. If His word abides in us and we abide in Him, that relationship will be reflected in how we respond to situations in our daily lives. Bitter and sweet water can not come from the same stream. A lifestyle that reflects glory to God will be one that is characterized by the fruits of God’s Spirit. Grace, kindness, love, patience, joy, gentleness should be the fruit that we produce. Before we react to a stressful situation, we need to whisper a silent prayer. Counting to ten might keep you from saying something hurtful, but prayer will give you the words that are life-giving and beneficial to you and the other people involved in the situation. Don’t be deceived into thinking that we should just go with the flow. God has put you where you are to make a difference in the lives of the people around you. Sometimes that requires us to step out of our comfort zone and show love to people who are seemingly unlovable. We are the light that God has placed in this world to dispel the darkness. God is just as concerned about what you say to those in the workplace as He is about your Pastor’s sermon on Sunday morning.  There are words of life that need to be spoken, but they must be spoken in love.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-26-2019

May 25, 2019

“Be Made Complete”

19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. — Ephesians 3:19 NLT

Eph. 3:14-21 NLT

God is love and everything that we experience is designed to show us His love.  In the rough patches, we don’t feel that that statement is true because we don’t and never will understand the greatness of His love.  God wants us to strive to get to the point that we realize His only motivation is His love for us.  He wants us to be like Christ whose only motivation for dying on the cross for our sins was love.  Not every lesson we learn will be enjoyable.  I am sure that being persecuted, beaten and hung on a cross was not an enjoyable experience for Jesus but it was necessary to show God’s marvelous love for us.  Learning to love the “unlovable” and those that mistreat us is a necessary lesson, not only for our completeness but to show others the immeasurable love of God.  Jesus showed His love for us by giving His life for all of us while we were still sinners.  We must show that same kind of love to those around us each day.  As Paul says in the passage above (and I paraphrase) God places the Holy Spirit in our hearts and our roots must grow down into God’s love which will enable us to show that love in every situation.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-25-2019

May 24, 2019

“O God, You Are My God”

1 O God, you are my God;    I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water. — Psalm 63:1

Psalm 63:1-6 NLT

Do we really believe that Jesus is available all the time? Do we really believe that He wants the absolute best for us all the time? Do we really believe that He is interested in our present welfare? Or do we believe that He is only interested in our eternity? Do we really believe that He loves us so much that He is interceding for us right now? Do we really believe that the King of Kings is praying for us this very moment?  Do we really believe that “if He gave us His Son, He will freely give us ALL things?  Do we really believe “that all things are possible to him who believes”? Do we really believe that we need to “hide God’s Word in our heart”?  Do we really believe that God’s Holy Spirit is a person and can be grieved?  Do we really believe that Jesus is God? Do we really believe that God’s Holy Spirit is God?  Do we really believe that God’s Holy Spirit searches our hearts and prays for us?  Do we really believe that God’s Spirit knows our hearts and the heart of God and that He is able to communicate our deepest desires to God and put God’s answers in our heart?  Does our lifestyle and daily walk reflect that we really believe  that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, immutable word of God?  Do we constantly lean on Jesus or is He just our safety net?  Is He our constant friend or is He our EMT?  Is He first in our lives or just mixed in somewhere down the list?  Is a day without spending time with Him and in His word dark and gloomy?  Does our soul hunger and thirst after Him and His word just as much as our body hungers and thirsts after food and drink?

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-24-2019

May 23, 2019

“Every Piece of God’s Armor”

13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.— Ephesians 6:13 NLT

Eph. 6:10-18 NLT
God’s purpose for us is to advance His Kingdom here on earth. How can we do that?  By waging a spiritual battle for the minds of people, so that they will accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  We certainly are not strong enough to defeat satan alone, but God has made a way for us to do just that. God’s way requires a lot of preparation and He tells us how to prepare in Ephesians 6.  We are to “put on the whole armor of God” and stand against the wiles of the devil. We may never have to physically fight for our Lord and Savior, but we are in a mental battle every second of every day. Are we winning or losing the battle of the mind? The “wiles” of the devil lets us know that satan is very cunning and devious in his plan to defeat God by defeating God’s children. As we are told in 2 Corinthians, we must pull down strongholds and bring our thoughts and imaginations into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. And, again, in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-23-2019

May 22, 2019

“Save Us By Your Power”

5 Now rescue your beloved people.  Answer and save us by your power. – Psalm 60:5


Psalm 60:1-5 NLT

There are times in all of our lives when we feel like David in this Psalm. We feel like we are broken down and unable to function. It is as if everything we have held on to is being shaken and stripped away from us. God allows us to go through these hard times to develop our faith. We are often confused by the things God allows, although we should not be. When we meditate on God’s Word, we are reminded that the answer is always the same. We don’t need things, we need Jesus. We need to learn to pray a new way. If we want peace, then we have to do what God has called us to do. We should be asking God, not so much for things, but for His presence to be magnified in our life and our lifestyle. We cannot accomplish this alone, We need the Holy Spirit every second of every day. When we get our priorities straight, we will arrive at the same conclusion that David did in this Psalm.  We are unable to do anything of value with God’s help. It is He who tramples our foes and does mighty things for us.  Or, as Jesus put it, “you can do nothing without me”.   But with His help, Paul reassures us that “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”.

Post 05-22-2019