Rest

Today’s verse is:

“Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”  –  Matthew 11:28

I’m sure there are many of us right now who are tired, weary, and feel over burdened.  I know I personally have way more on my plate that I feel like I can possibly get done.  This upcoming week are my finals for my first two classes and on top of that, next week is a short week.  So let’s all, as a group, pray this little prayer and then enjoy the rest of our weekend shall we?

God, we come to You today so very tired, weary, and we feel very over burdened with everything that life has put upon us.  In Your Word Father, you say in Mathew 11:28 that we only need come to You with these problems and you would give us rest.  So based upon Your holy Word today, we lay these burdens down at your feet and we are going to relax and enjoy watching You deal with them.  We thank you for Your peace and rest this weekend Father and know that we love You with all our heart, mind, soul, body and spirit.  All of our praise and worship be to You God, in Jesus name, Amen. 

No on top some peaceful rest and relaxation before Monday invades upon us again!  I pray that you will have a restful weekend and please keep God first in all you do.

Take Captive Every Thought

Todays verse is:

“We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”  –  2 Cor. 10:5b (NIV)

This verse is simple, and powerful.  It is powerful because at its core, this is exactly how God gives us a way out of every single sin that we become a part of.  You see, no one ever makes you do anything, and there is always time before you commit an act for you to think about it.

Getting ready to tell someone a lie to make yourself look better?  Better stop and think about it before you do it.  Going to call in sick to work just because you are tired of the people you work with?  Better stop and think about it before you do it.  Thinking of looking at something that you know you are better off not seeing?  Better stop and think about it before you do it.

Not only stopping to think about it, but why not ask God about it too?  God loves it when you take the time to stop and truly ask Him what He wants you to do in any given situation.  

Recently at work I was faced with a situation where I simply wanted to tell someone what they wanted to hear because this person is habitually difficult to work with and usually no matter what you tell them, they become critical of you.  As I was approaching them to speak with them, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit upon my heart, and I felt an extremely strong need to talk with God about my situation before I spoke with this individual.  So I veered away and went into an enclave and sat down and quickly asked God what His will was for this situation.  Almost immediately, it was put upon me to. no matter what, tell the honest truth and let God deal with the consequences.  I of course argued that I just wasn’t up to be chastised by this person yet again, but just like when Jesus told His disciples to throw their nets out into the deep after fishing all day and catching nothing, I came to the conclusion that doing this God’s way is always the best way no matter what the consequences held for me.

I left the enclave and went right to this persons office.  I then shared with them the news that I initially did not want to share and then planted both feet firmly on the ground to brace for my verbal beating.  But this time, this person stood up and walked over to me and told me that they truly appreciated the fact that I do not just tell them what they want to hear and that I am not afraid to stand up for the right thing to do!

You can write this down and take this to the bank, when God tells you to do something – DO IT!  It always works out in your favor.  So next time you are tempted by the enemy to do what you know is not the right thing to do, why not ask God to strengthen you for the task ahead and then watch the blessing that God has in store for you?

Lord, we thank you that you always give us a way out of every temptation that the enemy consistently throws at us.  Satan is an unrelenting foe God, but we can always rest assured that You are on the throne and in control.  Thank you for loving us more than we can ever be tempted, in Jesus Christ majestic and all powerful name I pray, Amen!

Gather Your Children

Today’s verse is:

“How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  –  Matthew 23:37

Here in Matthew we see a picture that is becoming all too familiar to the church of the year 2013.  We, as believers, so very much want to reach out to anyone who will listen to us and share our faith with them.  But just like this verse says, “you were not willing.”

Why is it do you think that people are not willing to listen to the Word of God?  Sure there are a ton of things in the Bible that an unbeliever would have trouble understanding.  Heck, even some believers have a lot of trouble understanding a lot of the Bible, but yet believers are always willing to at least listen.

You would think that anyone would be willing to hear things like, “It really is best not to steal from others.”  Or how about, “It really is best not to kill other people.”  You see, I don’t care if John down the street wrote these things down and began teaching them, or if they were in the Bible, which they are, these things make perfect sense.  I understand that some people have a hard time believing that there is a God in Heaven and He loves every single person yet is willing to let people go to Hell if that is their choice.  There certainly are things that may be a little hard to swallow at first, but you have to be willing to listen and learn about why that is true about God.  

These same people will fight till they are blue in the face to get you to listen to them tell you all about why there is no God, yet will hardly give you five minutes to give your side of the story.  But let me tell you this, we are not talking about whether we like a book or not – we are talking about what happens to you when you finally pass away from this world.  Let me put it to you very simply – if you don’t have God, then you don’t have an eternity in Heaven with Him, because after all, He doesn’t exist to you right?  So if there is no God, what happens to you after you die?  Do you just simply cease to exist?  How pointless and depressing is that?  If that were true, why doesn’t the majority of people just run rampant and steal and kill and take whatever they want whenever they want because after all, I could die tomorrow and after that, nothing.  

Do you truly want to be living for nothing?  God surely doesn’t want you to.  So if you are one of the many who still thinks there is no God, and you are refusing to listen, then I will just continue to pray for you because I can assure you that Hell is a place that exists and if there is no God, the Bible says your left with only one other choice.  Don’t you think it may just be worth listening to, even if you still don’t agree with it?

Father I pray tonight that You would unharden the hearts of the lost and open their ears to Your Word.  There is no guarantee of even another second here on Earth Lord, and it is my deep desire that not even a single person would find themselves lost in Hell for all eternity.  I pray that you will sink this message deep in the minds of the lost Father and that they would take the time to think over what it is they are living for.  Heaven is only one faithful commitment away for all of Your children and I can only pray that they would simply listen to Your Word before it is too late.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Like Jesus Does

How grateful are you for the people in your life?  And not just the ones who are closest to you, I’m talking about everyone, like your boss, your co-workers, your mailman, and your neighbors as well.  Are you grateful enough for these people that you pray for them joyfully?  

Paul set an amazing example in the book of Philippians of just this.  Paul was in prison and had been beaten and put in chains, yet the thing that was foremost on his mind was how the people in the church at Philipi were doing!  I know that sometimes I get bad headaches and the last thing I want to do or think about is how people at at my church are doing.  Yet here is a man who was in jail, yet was still thinking about other people before himself!  What an awesome example of loving people like Jesus does!

Let me challenge you to spend some time reading Philippians and really open up your heart to stop taking the people in your life for granted.  We all do this, and we all should do it a lot less.  In my case, I have a truly amazing family who have given up a lot recently so that I can go back to school and fulfill a dream of mine.  These people should be the first thing I pray about each morning as God grants me another breath and another fantastic day on His wonderful Plant Earth!  

Are you praying for the people in your life?  If not, then why not start right now!  Pray that God will shine His wisdom and and His peace right down on their lives.  Pray that they would strive to be more like Jesus themselves.  If you have kids, then pray that they will always make wise, bible based decisions and pray that God will always protect them when we cannot.  God hears every single word that escapes from your mouth, and moreso the prayers that you send to Him.  He is a faithful and true God and will answer every prayer that it is His will, and certainly praying for our loves one and friends is exactly within His will.

Lord we thank you so very much for the ability to be able to come into your presence and to speak directly with you.  Lord, may we never forget or take advantage of those people who You have put into our lives.  We pray for your protection, wisdom, and guidance for their lives and of course that that would seek You as their savior in their lives.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Samson and Your Job in Heaven? Read on!

When you think of the Biblical person of Samson, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?  Super human strength certainly jumps right up for me.  But the real lesson that comes from Samson rings all too clear – giving in to temptation will only end you up in ruin.

Ironically, Samson was the strongest man who ever lived, but he came from the weakest tribe that ever lived in Israel.  There was no pushing Samson around and everyone knew it.  The Philistines so feared Samson that they had to let him walk right into their borders without so much as telling him to leave for fear he would wipe them out.  They struggled with Samson for years and it seemed there would be no way to bring this hulk down.  

Then someone got wind that Samson could not overcome his temptation for women.  Any woman!  All women!  But especially foreign women!  Samson decided to put pleasure ahead of principle and it brought the strongest man in the world to his knees, and ultimately he would lose his life because of it.

In today’s world, temptation is surrounding us all day long every day.  You go to work, and someone brings in a platter of sweets.  Your family is busy so you decide to eat out much more.  When you finally get a free minute, you wouldn’t dream of going to the gym because we are too tired and our favorite show is on the TV.  Commercials tell us that drinking beer will make legions of women throw themselves at men.  The majority of women on TV seemingly never eat and look perfect every minute of the day.  The temptations never end because satan never sleeps.

I had a conversation with a friend today and he told me this, “Brad, all I want to do is ensure that I get into Heaven.  Everyone is the same in Heaven and everyone will just be happy to be there.”  Oh how wrong my friend is.  So I had to tell him this:

“You need to think of life as being much like an Olympic ceremony.  When you win an event, you stand on the highest pedestal, but they don’t come up to you and ask you what your favorite song is and play that.  No sir!  They play your home nations national anthem.  That is because you are a representative of that nation or kingdom.  Here on Earth, if you are a believer, you are representing Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.  How well you represent that Kingdom will say much about how you will spend Eternity.  How so you ask?  The Bible tells us that upon Jesus’ return, the saints (us believers) will fly up with Him as He begins His reign of 1000 years here on Earth.  Our Earth gets remade into Heaven.  Then we will have a judgment and it will be based on how well we represented Christ here on Earth.  So think of it this way, the job that Jesus will give you will be based on how well you served Him during your time on Earth.  So let me ask you, how well are you serving God?”

Believe it or not, there will still be street sweepers in Heaven during the 1000 year reign, and there is every possibility that you may be spending your 1000 year period with a Heavenly broom in your hand and waiting for people to move so that you can clean up after them!  Now in order to earn a better job, say like Head Worshipper, you need to ensure that you are giving 100% of yourself to God while you are here.  Remember that to those whom are given much, much is expected.  It is simply not enough to go to church each week and call yourself a Christian.  God expects, and rightly deserves, much more than that.

So tonight I challenge you to ask yourself, what does your Heavenly resume look like right now?  Are you qualified for the awesome jobs in Heaven, or will you have a headset mic on and be saying, “would you like fries with that?”  A thousand years will be a very long time, and you job in Heaven will be a reward that God gives you for faithful service to Him.  Make a decision now to stop living for the perfect Earthly home or job and starting padding your Heavenly resume.

God, in your word, many times You tell us of the rewards you have waiting for us in Heaven.  Since we cannot see a catalog of them or touch them or feel them, we often times lose sight of them totally.  Of course, getting into Heaven itself will be the most awesome thing to ever happen to anyone, but it will be truly surprising for us to have You show us rewards we could never even dream of that we will not get because we were poor stewards of our Earthly time and resources.  Lord, I pray tonight that everyone reading this message will turn their eyes away from Earthly prizes and begin storing up their treasures in Heaven.  Thank You for your never ending love, grace, and mercy Father.  In Jesus name, Amen!

God’s Character

Today’s verse is”

“Surely God will never do wickedly. nor will the Almighty pervert justice.”  –  Job 34:12

Do bad things happen to good people?  Certainly they do.  Bad things also happen to bad people as well, you just don’t hear about those as much because we tend to not converse often or openly with bad people.  Bad things happening to good people makes better news stories and cause much more outrage.  But it rains on the just as well as the unjust.

So why is it that God allows bad things to happen to good people?  Two words – free will.  You see, God also finds it awful that bad things happen to good people, just as He doesn’t like it when bad things happen to bad people.  God is the God of ALL PEOPLE.  God loves everyone just the same.  God also understands that He never makes anyone do anything, ever.  If you happen to be driving along one day and a person comes up and tries to steal your car, do you think God told that person to steal your car?  Of course not.  God wants that person to be reading His Word and applying it to their lives just as much as He wants us to do the same.  Yet that person has free will.  And in having free will, they have chosen a path in life that has led them to a place that they feel that stealing your car is what they need to do to get themselves ahead in life.  Without the Bible as their guidebook for life, they are without the moral compass that will tell them that stealing is wrong.  But that is their choice, and that is called free will, and everyone has it.

Free will is all at once an amazing, freeing feeling, and at the same time a horrifying and solitary feeling, depending on how you look at it.  Some people understand that free will is a gift from God and others see it as free reign to cause chaos and anarchy.

But regardless of all of that, we must always know that God will always do what is right.  His truth never changes and He has said that He will work all things to the good for those who believe in Him, and that means He will do what He says He is going to do.  There is not a single promise that God made in His Word, with the exception of any promise that He specifically said would happen in the future like Christ’s return to Earth, that He has not kept.  God’s character is  such that by His very nature He cannot lie.  Who else do you have in your life that will never lie to you about anything?  

Bad things are going to happen to us, it is a fact of life.  But please know that God doesn’t want them to happen to us, and it grieves Him when they do.  But if you know Christ as your Lord, then you have a gift that many others do not, and that is you have God there to turn what was a bad thing happening to you to turn it into a good thing for you.  I can’t tell you how many times I have had something I felt was “tragic” happen to me, yet when it was over and some time had passed, I found out that it was indeed for my betterment that it happened in the first place.  Jobs lost, people getting upset and leaving, car accidents, even the passing of my own Dad.  Each and every one of these “tragic” events has helped me to realize that I must always rely and turn to God to get through this part of life.  We currently live in a phase of life that is all about trials and tribulations and how we deal with them.  When these things happen to you, do you always and firstly turn to God?  If not, then ask yourself why?

God has already told us that He wants to be our continual helper.  We are wise when we seek His mind on even the small things in life.  God’s character is that of unconditional loving kindness towards us and we would do well to never forget that.  When the storms come, just look up and realize that the person who created everything you can see wants to work things out for you, and He will do it with you if you will only let Him.

Father, in a world that seems to be fraught with only bad news, and bad things happening all the time, I pray that You will help us to see You working in everything since it was You who created everything.  You said You will never leave us nor forsake us, and we are certainly happy to claim that promise God.  When life brings its issues to us daily, may we always smile and gather up the troubles and drop them squarely at Your holy feet and then say, “I look forward to seeing how You are going to turn this into something good for me God, because I alone cannot do that for myself.”  In Jesus name I pray, Amen!

 

Not a verse, But A Truly Inspirational Video.

No verse today.  Instead a link to a video that I promise you will leave your heart feeling renewed with love and purpose.  Pastor David Ring spoke at my schools convocation and his speech brought me to tears.  There is no way you can look at this man and not come away knowing that God loves every single person He creates and that God has a plan for all of us.  Here is the link to the video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUYErPtTzS0.

Keep your kleenex handy and I promise you that Mr. Ring will change your life.

God, thank you for the work that You have done in David Ring’s life.  It stands as a shining example to every single person that You are indeed in control, that You love us all, and that You have a plan and a purpose for all of Your childrens lives.  With You for us God, nothing can ever stand against us, and that is a feeling I pray we never lose.  In Jesus name, Amen!

No Fear – A Call To All Christians For Action

Today’s verse is:

“God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, & of sound mind.”  –  2 Timothy 1:7

As today marks the anniversary of the tragic date we all remember as 9/11, I thought it might be appropriate to remind everyone that fear is never an emotion that God wants us to dwell in.  Terrorism is called terrorism because it just happens out of the blue – totally unexpected and unplanned for.  Of course flying planes into buildings is clearly an extreme example, but if you take a good long look at life, we have “little bouts of terrorism” in our lives every day.

For example, we may get involved in a car accident on our way to work, or someone who is close to us gets a bad medical report, or our employer starts talking about laying people off.  We are forced to deal with these types of stressors each and every day.  But we must never lose sight that God does not want us to dwell in the negative.  That is what satan wants us to do because it takes away all of our strength and power.  Just the opposite of what God expects from us.  These days fear runs rampant because satan is working overtime in our nation, and it is high time we Christians put an end to it and take a stand!

Remember the story in the Bible where the apostles were in their boat and Jesus was asleep?  When the storms began to break, instead of keeping their peace and calmness and realizing that they had the Messiah in the boat with them, they gave in to the fear.  They awoke Jesus and of course with a few words spoken directly to the storm, the storm quieted itself.  This story is a perfect example to each and every one of us.

STAY CALM – KEEP YOUR PEACE – Jesus will speak to your problems as well and just like the storm, it too will pass.

No matter what you are facing today, I promise you and guarantee you that God is bigger than your problems.  Sure you may be dying to ask the question, “Why me?”  Let me assure you that in Heaven you will have all eternity to replay your life and figure things out, but for today, you are experiencing the grand test that is life, and you must know that God is watching how you handle yourself when your storms come through.

Do you truly believe that God cares for you and will help you through your storms?  HE DOES and HE WILL!  He created you after all, so what sense would it make for Him to just let you go without watching over everything you do?  No sense at all!

When those planes hit our buildings, our minds had no clue how to process it all.  The simply question was “Why?”  Of course non-believers immediately asked, “Why did God make this happen?”  We believers know that God, in all His grace and wisdom, gave us free will, meaning God doesn’t make us do anything – we choose what we will do.  Therefore people on this Earth CHOOSE to fly planes into buildings, God doesn’t MAKE anyone fly planes into buildings.  That day grieved God as much as it did us.  

As a nation it seemed the purpose of 9/11 was to get us back on track as far as it concerns our following the Godly principles that this very nation was founded on.  And for quite awhile we banded together and did just that.  Now I fear, we have once again gotten “fat and happy” with ourselves in these times of relative quiet and are once again choosing to put aside the ways and will of God.

The moral of my message here is that fear is a good thing.  What do I mean?  What I don’t mean is that we should live fearful of our world and our circumstances.  For that, we must always trust God, put on a smile and bear the bad things that come knowing God is on the throne and in control.  Then what should we fear you ask?  We should fear getting so full our ourselves and our wants that we put everything else in first place in our lives ahead of God, who gives us everything to begin with.

If my message makes you uncomfortable, then I have written it well because it was meant to.  The Bible tells us, time and time again, of nations that felt they were too strong and too powerful to ever fall.  Remember how powerful and even technologically advanced that Rome was?  Wonder what happened to them?  The same will happen to our beloved United States of America if we continue to backslide on the values that got us here in the first place.  

I challenge all Christians who read this message today to make a vow and take a stand to stand up for God in every way that you can going forward.  We have been silent for far too long and no one wants another 9/11, or worse, to happen.  In order to ensure that it doesn’t, we must prove to God that we love Him, trust Him to be our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to protect us from harms way.  But if He finds us not worth protecting, then we are in for much worse that 9/11.  We will find our country in ashes just as mighty Rome did.

My friends, on this anniversary day, let’s make a stand for God in a powerful way!  God is watching and waiting.  What do you think He is seeing?  Foundational things like marriage are under fire in our society.  Christ has been removed from schools and I’m said to say it, but also from many churches as well.  Do you know that satan loves to attend our church services?!!  It is there that he does his best work in causing division, strife, back stabbing, lies, and general hatred.  Of course our government today would have trouble picking Christ out of a line up at this point.  They are far too busy being high on power trips and counting their money.  When will it all end?  Only when we raise our voices and turn the temple tables over like the example Jesus set for us when He had seen enough.

When we become the authoritative voice of our Lord and begin forcing change in our society, then and only then can our fears can be calmed.  

Father, my prayer to you today, on this anniversary of an incredibly sad and tragic event that happened to our beloved United States of America, I pray that every single person who reads this message will take it to heart and will take a stand for You.  You are the very foundation of our lives and our world, and it is high time we stop letting people push You to the back of every room.  I vow to never be ashamed of my love for you God and I don’t care who tries to tell me that I can’t have a Christmas party to celebrate You!  Father I pray that you will strengthen all of Your children as we prepare to face the onslaught of naysayers who only want to remove You from society.  May we, like the Apostles before us, be willing to do and say whatever is necessary to shout Your holy name from the highest highs as well as the lowest lows, and anywhere You call us to be.  May we be able to prove to You once again Lord that without You, there is no foundation to stand on.  In Jesus holy and all powerful name I sing your praises and pray to You now, Amen!

Simple

Today’s verse is:

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”  -Psalm 103:1

Sometimes there is nothing to add to a passage of scripture to help people understand it and apply it to their lives.  This verse is one of those.

Lord we bless your holy name for all that You gave for our salvation.  At any time You could have said “Enough” and walked away from that horrible death You suffered on that cross at Calvary, but You loved us too much for that.  May we never lose sight of Your gift to us and may we always keep You first in our hearts, minds, and lives.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen!  

They Did Not Know The Lord

Today’s verse is:

“Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord.”  –  1 Samuel 2:12

Eli’s sons stand as a perfect example to all of God’s children that you can certainly attend church each week, know your scripture inside and out, keep up with all of the rituals that go along with religion, yet still not make the Lord your Lord.

These boys served as priests for a very long time even though “they did not know the Lord”.  I am sure that we all know of people, maybe even some that attend our very own churches, who certainly act like they do not know the Lord.  But do you know how easy it is to get lumped into that category?

Just the these boys, it is certainly not enough to simply hear or read God’s Word and then let it sit in our minds.  In fact, many times throughout the entire Bible, God tells us that it is actually worse to hear the Word of God and do nothing with it than it is to never hear the Word at all!  So many people today are very happy simply getting themselves into church each week and making sure that everyone sees us there and then letting God’s Word go in one ear and right out the other.  Very dangerous that is!!

God gives us His Word for many reasons, but high up on the list is His wish that we would take what He tells us and put it into action within our lives.  It never fails for me that no matter where I happen to open my Bible to, I can always find a passage of scripture that I find convicting to my own life.  That is God speaking directly to me.  So if I do not take the time to meditate on that passage and think carefully about how to apply it to my life, I am basically saying to God, “I really don’t care to listen to You right now, I’m doing fine on my own.”  Very dangerous that is!!!

It is my prayer for everyone that you would not only take the time to sit with God daily and let Him tell you where you need work in your own life, and then take the next step in faith and put into action what God wants you to do.  The blessings you will receive in doing so will always outweigh any uneasiness you may have in admitting you have an issue.  

Lord, I pray to you this evening that every single person who reads these words would have the strength of conviction to want to, daily, get alone with You and listen intently to what You have to say to them, and then take the next step and make the changes in their lives that You are asking them to make.  You said God that obedience always pays off in Your best blessings, and we will boldly claim your promise as we take Your Word to heart and let it change us into being the people You us to be.  In Jesus Christ holy, all powerful name I pray this evening, Amen!