First and last!

Revelation 1: 8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

 

This was a pretty strong statement made by Jesus.

He said He was the first and the last—the beginning and the end.

 

When Jesus was condemned to death, He was convicted of heresy.

A heretic is a person who does not conform to the orthodox system is place.

 

Jesus was a rebel—a pioneer—an innovator, and a heretic in the eyes of the authorities and His peers.

If you stand against the accepted values of the community, of which you live in, there’s a good chance you’ll be considered a heretic.

 

Is there enough evidence to suggest that you’re a heretic?

When one ideology controls everything, new ideas aren’t even allowed to be tabled. That seems to be the case in our modern culture.

That’s the best chance for a heretic to surface!

 

Did you know that it’s up to every person who would call them a Christian, to become a heretical—especially when the worldview in place, doesn’t allow for alternative thinking.

Now mark my word—there are good heretics—and there are bad ones.

 

Make no mistake about it—Jesus was an honorable heretic—because His stake to claim, went against everything the religious establishment stood for…

Daily Grind!

Romans 6: 4

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For some of us, today will be a return to the daily, weekly grind.

I wonder if we call it the “grind”, because daily life has a tendency to grind us down?

We get ground down, because of all those responsibilities we have—and decisions we need to make—and just the endless details of everyday life.

This endless litany of decisions, can often numb our senses.

We can also get so ground down by the things of life, that we can lose our connection with God.

It’s when the things of life get us down, that we need to be transformed.

Did you know that through Jesus Christ, we can be renewed and transformed?

When we come to realize, that Jesus came to the end of Himself for us, maybe it’s then, we can come the end of us?

Transformation happens, when we give up our lives and the daily grind, for Him.

Today, He can replace your old, worn down life, with a brand new life.

When the new life begins to take place, the old, mundane one, is quick to fade away.

Allow His glory and grace to shine through today, and maybe you won’t feel like life is such a grind after all… 

Busy Bee!

1 Corinthians 2: 13

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

This morning I attached a beautiful picture of a sunflower, growing in one of our food plots up at our north woods cabin.

If you look closely, you’ll see a busy bee, collecting pollen in the picture.

I watched this bee for almost 5 minutes, and it never once took his/her focus off of its task.

Did you know that we’re supposed to be, bee like?

We should spend time in the Word—reading, studying, praying and taking notes.

Our minds should be filled with biblical wisdom and biblical insight.

The bee left its hive that morning, empty, but came back at the end of the day, completely full.

Is that how you’ll begin/end this new day?

There’s a good chance that your day will be sweeter and fuller, if God is what you’re focused on.

Thank God today, for the opportunities He gives you to bask in His word—then, take full advantage of them…

Unstoppable!

Matthew 5: 45

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

I must admit, I sometimes forget just how good our God is.

I just came from the Kirk Cameron movie tonight, “Unstoppable”, and I went with family and many people from our church.

I also must admit, that in the sight of God, I felt pretty small.

I have to wonder why, God sends rain to the “just” and the “unjust”.

Wouldn’t it be considered just a big waste of water, to send rain to the atheists or evolutionists?

I mean if it really did rain only on just the “just”, then wouldn’t it disprove the existence of a loving God?

Actually, just when I think I know all there is to know about God, I find out how little I really do know.

Were some of the people at the Naval Yard shooting a few weeks ago, “just”?

Probably so, and yet God in His sovereign way, allowed for history to be made in that single event.

Whether you would consider yourself part of the “just” or “unjust” crowd—Jesus loves you.

He also desires that none would perish—and that just blows my mind.

That’s just the way He feels, and that’s just the way He operates.

I think we need to get used to how He works, and how He feels…

Get covered!

Psalm 55: 1

Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught…

 

Life in general, can bring about some pretty direct blows.

Sometimes those blows feel like a big sock to the stomach—so much so, we don’t even feel like we’ve got any place to run and hide.

 

I think we need to remember, that no matter how badly we feel, we can always count on God to bring us to some place of spiritual safety.

To receive the help we need, we need to welcome Him into our lives, and trust in His provision.

 

I left for a church meeting recently, and Debbie was quick to tell me… “Don’t forget your armor!”

Do you know that we need to cover ourselves with God’s protective armor, every day?

 

I must admit that I’m lax at doing that.

If I don’t go through the armor process as I begin each day, it’s amazing how much of my peace get absorbed by the chaos of the day.

 

Then when I wake up, and I begin to think about the helmet of salvation, and I can take a deep breath, because I know everything’s going to be alright.

God hears our prayers, and He will not ignore our pleas for help.

 

But when things get out of control, do we truly trust in God’s provision?

Is He the shelter we seek, when this crazy old world, get’s crazier?

 

“Gracious Heavenly Father, some of our best efforts aren’t our best, because we often get caught up in the storms of life.

Help us to seek You, when we long for shelter, from the storms of life. The safest place to be, is in the protection of your loving presence.

Forgive us, when we don’t look to You first, to calm the raging seas—Amen”

Delight!

Psalm 37: 4

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 

I meet more and more people these days, and the one thing they long for the most, is happiness.

Happiness is so fleeting, isn’t it?

 

We do everything we can to get it, and then work feverishly to keep it.

The more I understand people as relates to happiness, it appears people are looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

 

Maybe if we actually put God first in our lives, then we’d get what we’d desire most.

Frankly though, we don’t always look to God to get happy.

 

If the average person works at their faith relationship with God, like they do going on a diet, it probably isn’t bringing much happiness.

Do you see your relationship with God, as something you want to do, or something you feel like you have to do?

 

Duty to God must never become an obligation.

When we start to justify being away from God, because we’re always busy, then there probably isn’t much happiness going on.

 

Maybe when God become secondary, to our entertainment schedule, maybe we’re actually delighting in ourselves.

There’s a good chance, that our desires, aren’t His desires.

 

When those things get flip flopped, and God becomes the one thing we delight in, maybe then we’ll find true happiness…

Forgive!

Matthew 18: 21 – 22

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

 

One of the most dangerous things people can hold onto, is the spirit of resentment.

Hanging tightly onto unforgiveness, can often have severe consequences for  the unforgiver, and the so called perpetrator.

 

Unforgiveness is in direct violation of God’s law.

It’s also the one thing that causes great spiritual turmoil, and certainly hinders the growth of a Christ follower.

 

It begins with stale prayer, because unforgiveness should really be confessed to God.

How can we truly justify honoring God, when we’re trying to bury an attitude of resentment?

There’s no honor in that.

 

Real forgiveness means that a person has to give up every area of resentment.

Can we really list all the ways a person has failed us, and then offer them forgiveness in the same breath?

Not hardly—and that just doesn’t seem to add up.

 

Even if someone has wronged us, Jesus says a life of freedom can be found, in giving up the wrongs that someone wronged us with.

I like what Joyce Meyer once said… “Unforgiveness is like you drinking the poison, and expecting the other person to die,”

 

Maybe church life would be a whole lot more enjoyable, if we didn’t carry so many offenses and grudges…