Walking by Faith

November 15, 2018

“God Always Makes A Way of Escape”

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28 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29 Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30 but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.  — Luke 4:28-30 NLT

After His temptation in the wilderness and at the Temple in Jerusalem,  Jesus went to the region of Galilee.  He had taught in their synagogues and ministered to people in that area and was praised by the people.  When He came to His boyhood home of Nazareth, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath where He read from the scroll.  As He began to teach, He explained that what He had read was being fulfilled before their eyes that very day.  (Luke 4:14-27)  He went on to explain to them that He could not do the miracles here that He did in Capernaum because no prophet was accepted in his hometown.  In other words, it is hard to witness to those who really know us because “familiarity breeds contempt”.   Those that know us best sometimes have less respect for us because they feel that we are trying to be more holy than they are.  To them, Jesus was just a carpenter’s son, but to the rest of the world, He was the Son of God.  Their contempt for Him caused them to become angry at His words.  So, they mobbed Him and took Him to the top of the cliff intending to push Him off the cliff and murder Him.  However, it was not His time to die nor was He to die in this manner.  In an amazing miracle, Jesus simply walked through the crowd and went on His way.  God protected Him in some fashion, we aren’t told how.  The takeaway from this story is that as long as we are obedient to God, He will protect us from all danger.  If we speak the words He wants us to speak, we will not die before our time or in any manner that was not planned beforehand. We should never be afraid to speak the words that are given to us by the Holy Spirit.


10  Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.  ​ — Isaiah 41:10 NLT​

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

Post 11-15-2018

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May 31, 2018

No Plan B

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22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. – Ezra 8:22A NLT
 
Ezra 8:21-23 NLT
Ezra was a priest and a scribe who was in captivity in Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia.  Ezra had fasted and prayed and God had given Ezra great favor with the king.  So, when Ezra determined to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple the king not only allowed Ezra to go but gave him permission to take any Jews that would volunteer to go with him. The king also gave him great treasures totaling over 110 million in today’s market to take with him to help in rebuilding the temple. (Ezra 9:26-27)  Ezra had gathered the people by the Ahava Canal and they fasted and prayed for God to give them a safe journey to Jerusalem.  Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers to protect them because he had told the king “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him”.  How many times do we ask God for something and He answers but then we decide we need a plan B just in case?  We should be like Ezra, we should be ashamed to ask the world to give us what our God has already promised to us He is the author and the finisher of our faith, He has begun a good work in us and He will complete it.  When God gives us a mission, we need to fast and pray and then take the first step. Trust Him, He will provide.

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

Post 05-31-2018

May 11, 2017

Faith Brings the Victory!

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29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. ​ — Hebrews 11:29 NLT​

Hebrews 11:24-31 NIV

The children of Israel had cried out to God for 400 years. They were holding onto the hope that God would deliver them from captivity. God heard their cry and sent a man who was both a prince and a shepherd (Jesus is our Shepherd and our Prince of Peace) to lead them out. When they were trapped between the Egyptian chariots and the Red Sea, they had only one hope. Would God desert them or lead them out? Because Moses had faith, God’s children walked across on dry land, not so for the Egyptians. For six days, Joshua led the army as they walked in complete silence around Jericho one time each day. The procession was led by armed men followed by the seven priests with rams’ horns. On the seventh day, they marched around Jericho seven times. At the end of the seventh lap, the priests blew the horns and the people shouted to the Lord and the walls fell straight down. Obedience and faithfulness brought the victory! Because Rahab was faithful and protected the spies, her family was saved and she is one of 4 women mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. Faith brings salvation. We are “saved by grace through faith”.


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

Post 05-11-2017

April 13, 2017

Talk and Walk the Talk

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1 As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching.
— Titus 2:1 NLT
Titus 2:1-8 NLT

We should all be mentors to those that are younger in the faith then we are. We should be teaching younger Christians starting with those in our household and then those that God puts in our path. There is no such thing as coincidence or a “chance meeting”. God has a plan and the people we meet are a part of God’s plan for us. God has put each of those people in our lives for a season and for a reason. The season could be as short as a few minutes or as long as a lifetime. The reason is for us to spread the Gospel and introduce others to Jesus Christ. If they already know Christ as their Savior, then the reason is for us to teach them or for them to teach us. Be attentive to the Holy Spirit, when He says speak, He will give you the correct words. Don’t be afraid of failure, God never fails and we are working for Him.


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

Post 04-13-2017

April 2, 2017

Fight the Good Fight

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12 Fight the good fight for the true faith.  — 1 Timothy 6:12a NLT
1 Timothy 6:11-16 NLT
 

We are to “reject every kind of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22). In Matt 5:6, we are reminded “to hunger and thirst after righteousness and we will be filled”. Every day, there is spiritual warfare being waged around us. We must fight the good fight and stay committed to obeying Jesus Christ and His commands to us. We must continue this fight until we are called home to be with Jesus or until He returns to take us home with Him. If we remain steadfast in the faith, Jesus has a home waiting for us that is so magnificent and wonderful that the human mind cannot even imagine what it will be like. No matter how hard the struggle here on earth, heaven will, indeed, be more than worth it all.

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

Post 04-02-2017

January 27, 2016

His Faith – Not Ours

even-smaller-bug-light16 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. — Eph. 2:6-9 NIV

This is a familiar passage to most Christians, yet I wonder if we really grasp everything it says to us.  It explains to us why God saved us and raised us up. It was not just for our benefit, though that would have been more than enough.  He did it so He could show to us and the world the “incomparable riches of His grace”.  The greatest expression of that grace was God allowing Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to die on a cruel cross for our sins. It is that grace that has saved us, through faith.  Not our faith, His faith, His gift to us. That is why we can be sure that our salvation is eternal.  Thanks be to God that my salvation is not based on my faith, which is not always steadfast. It is based on His faith, which is steadfast and eternal.  If it were based on my faith, I could be saved today and lost tomorrow.  His faith is everlasting!
89 Your word, Lord, is eternal;  it stands firm in the heavens.
90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations;  you established the earth, and it endures. — Psalm 119:89, 90

15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! — 2 Cor. 9:15

Post 01-27-2016

August 30, 2015

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

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8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. — Hebrews 11:8-10

Abraham responded to the call of God in faith​ and started on a journey to a distant land not knowing where he was going.  He didn’t ask God for a map of the whole journey, he just obeyed day by day. We keep asking God for His will for our life when all we really need to know is what does He want us to do right now. Does that mean that we live haphazard, unprepared lives?  No, we can see that Abraham immediately prepared to go on a journey  He packed up everything and started in the direction God told him.  He prepared his family and himself for the journey without knowing the way or when the journey would end.  Like Abraham, we don’t know the path or the amount of time we will be required to travel on the journey.  God wants us to be like Abraham, prepare and pack for the journey but trust Him to direct our paths.  Trust Him to take us to the Promised Land.  Just as Abraham was sometimes disobedient and got off the straight and narrow path so do we.  Through all of Abraham’s errors and sufferings, God was faithful and brought him back to the path.  He does the same thing for us and more. He is living within each of us giving us directions constantly if we are listening and praying.  When we fall, He picks us up, forgives us, loves us and encourages us to go on. We live in tents of flesh here on earth and some day we will shed those tents and take our final segment of the trip that leads to the city “whose architect and builder is God” where we will receive our inheritance along with Jesus. Focus on Jesus and keep our eyes on the prize!

17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. — Romans 8:17 NIV

Post 08-30-2015
August 25, 2015

Never Alone!!

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10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. — Hebrews 6:10-12 NIV

​Accepting Jesus as our Savior is the first step on a  journey from here to heaven. We know our destination and we know that our arrival has been secured by the blood of Jesus. The huge difference in this trip and one that we might plan to take here on earth is that we don’t know the specifics of the route.  Generally, we know that it is ever onward and upward, but what does that entail on a minute by minute basis?  We are facing a great unknown and we must take every step by faith.  

17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” — Romans 1:17 NIV

​So we​ must study the gospel to know the way.  There is no earthly GPS that is going to lead us to heaven. But, God, in His great mercy and love for us installed a guide within us when we accepted His Son as our Savior.  We must learn to listen to the Guide to stay on the path. The way will not always be smooth and level.  It can get rocky and there will be valleys and mountains.  Just remember that every valley has two mountains and we travel from mountain to mountain not knowing what is over the next  one.  The important thing to KNOW is that we are never alone and if we get lost on the journey, the great Shepherd will leave the flock, come find us and carry us back to the straight and narrow path.  

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.— Proverbs 3:5, 6 NIV

Post 08-25-2015