The Easy Life

Far too many times we hear how a person who knows Christ should live a life of luxury and that God's blessing equals an easy life. The only problem with this theory is the Bible! A person truly seeking Jesus and His will for their life WILL encounter problems and crazy situations. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and was crucified and mocked for His efforts, how can we as His servants expect any less? I Corinthians 16:9 Paul is talking about visiting Corinth but he can't, "...for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.". The part that blows me away is there is a "wide door for effective work" and in the same breath Paul says there are "many adversaries". Brothers and Sisters, when God has amazing work to be done there will be people who oppose, slander, misunderstand and try to stop you. Remember that Jesus has you EXACTLY where He wants you! Follow Him and let opposition strengthen your resolve because if you are being opposed you are going the right direction!!! Remember Galatians 6:9, "let us not grow weary in doing good". God's will for your life does not equal the Easy Life, but it does equal the BEST LIFE!!!

Hands Unseen

As the events of this week unfolded, I watched God's Hands move people exactly where they needed to be. Events that seem to happen without reason I now look back on and see how precisely God positioned each person. WOW is all I can say. This life may never make sense until we look at it on the other side of Eternity, but I got a glimpse this week of how amazing God's timing is!!! Providence is a seldom used word these days, but it adequately describes how God masterfully sets each scene. I saw a church unite as a family and witnessed the answer to thousands of prayers!!! God You are AMAZING!!!!!!

Do you ever wonder?

Have you ever read through the Old Testament and wondered why some things are there? Like in Joshua 13-21. I wonder why we need to know every town that every tribe of Israel occupied. BUT, God in His divine knowledge includes these, seemingly, dry passages for a very good reason. At the end of all these verses we see Joshua 21:45 "Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.". Wow! The promises God made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis, He fulfilled every word. Looking back on all the promises God fulfilled in the Bible it is so encouraging to know that all the promises made to us WILL be fulfilled!!!!! Just like in the Great Hymn "Standing on the Promises", I can't wait for Jesus to come back and fulfill His promises!!!!! Rejoice in this today, God will NEVER let you down!

Sowing the Seed

The Church spends so much time trying to get people to come to church. We create programs to appease all comers. We want everyone to come to us, don't get me wrong, coming to church is a good thing. But, I wonder if we have it a little wrong? Jesus didn't hide in the Temple and throw stones at people as they went by, He went TO THE PEOPLE. Jesus talked to people He was culturally not supposed to, He ate dinner at shady men's homes and told everyone the Gospel. Let us today be more consumed with telling someone the Gospel, showing someone the Gospel, loving our fellow man more than ourselves and take the Gospel to the streets. Church, we must stop thinking everyone needs to come be like us! We are called and commanded to go (Mark 16:15) and sow the seed. We will reap what we sow. If we sow church and programs we will reap more programs and church activities. Let's sow the Gospel and watch God do what only He can do!!!

Obey Your Master

Remember the Metallica song 'Master of Puppets'? First, what a great song! Second, it reminds me of 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul says "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything." The word enslaved can also be translated Mastered. Who is your master? Romans 6:16b "..you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness". When we focus on what we want and what will make us happy we are slaves to sin. When we are more consumed with Jesus and what He desires we are slaves of obedience. A friend of mine starts every prayer with Master... what a vivid reminder of who He is speaking with. Take a few minutes today and think back through the last day, are you Mastered or controlled by your own desires or the desires of Jesus? We will make our master known by how we live? So.... who do you obey?