Category: February 2018

John 10:10

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

If you are not enjoying an abundant life, you will feel as if life is full of toil, meaningless and empty. You feel like someone “grasping for the wind”. (Ecclesiastes 2:11) It seems as if nothing you do adds up to much.

The Bible calls this life “under the sun”. (Ecclesiastes 2:11) Someone who lives life under the sun may or may not know God, but God is either forgotten or not the center of things in his life. His thoughts are earthly and he does things to gratify his flesh. In the end, he finds life depressing and unfulfilled. Life under the sun is full of despair.

But this is the opposite of someone who lives life above the sun with God. For life with Him is filled with joy and pleasures at His right hand. (Psalm 16:11) Life is abundantly full and good just as Jesus promised, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”.

When you live life above the sun, your thoughts are heavenward and you become Christ-occupied. You live for Him because you know that all things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16) When you live for His glory, your life takes on a new meaning and purpose.

God’s Word says, “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17) The Greek word for “consist” means “held together”. In Christ, all things are held together. And that is why when Christ is the central figure in your life, you will have it all together. Your mind will be held together. Your hopes and dreams will be held together. Your family will be held together by the cords of His love.

Your life will not be empty, but full of God’s goodness because “Christ in you, [is] the hope of glory”. (Colossians 1:27) It is a wonderful life – this life lived above the sun. And you will have an even more wonderful life to come in heaven!

Psalm 55:22

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you.

Have you eve been in a situation and said something like, “I can’t see a way out of the mess I am in.” or “I know that this whole thing is my fault.” or “I don’t even know whether God hears my prayers.” If you stop and think about it, a whole lot of our troubles are probably of our own making.

Now you might have heard that “God helps those who help themselves”. But contrary to popular belief, that saying is not in the Bible! God does not help those who help themselves. God helps those who are helpless and dependent on Him. He helps those who look to Him as their only source of help for their problem. If you say, “My problem is that I am weak.” God says, “I am your strength.” If you say, “Lord, I am the problem. I am a nobody.” God says, “I will make you a somebody.”

Unfortunately, many of us are still trying to help ourselves, we think that some things don’t really need God. But God says, “Without Me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Do we really believe that? Or do we believe that without Him, we can still do some things to help ourselves? When we stop trying to do things ourselves, we find God more than willing to be our Savior. But when we continue to try to work things out ourselves, we are trying to be our own saviors. Then God will say, “Save yourself, because I can’t help you when you don’t need My help.”

God wants us to cast our cares on Him, but often we continue to try and bear them ourselves, even though we say that we are trusting in Him. Only when we realize that we can do nothing, and are nothing in and of ourselves, can we do all things through Christ who strengthens us! (Philippians 4:13) Then, we will see the undeserved, unmerited help and favor of God deliver us from every evil!

Romans 10:17

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Did you know that most people don’t really understand something until they have heard it four to five times. If you see a new commercial on T.V., it usually takes four to five times before you understand what the commercial is all about. The same holds true with God’s Word. The more we hear it, the more we will understand it, and the more we understand it the more faith we get.

I’ve had people tell me that I repeat myself at times with the blackboards, and yes, I do. You see, we all leek! Picture yourself as a vessel filled with water. As time goes on the water will evaporate and even leek because of small holes in the vessel. It is the same with God’s Word. We become filled with His word and as time goes on that Word starts to evaporate or leek from us. That is why it is important to be in God’s Word constantly, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The more time we spend in God’s Word, the more faith we receive!

It’s a constant battle to stay focused on the things of God in today’s world. There are many distractions designed to make us leek. The enemy is really good at throwing subtle things at us that seem correct. Things like, “God knows if your a good person because He looks at your heart and sees your actions”. Now this might seem like a valid statement, but it implies that if we are good, God sees that and it is a way to our salvation. When the truth is that the only way to our salvation is through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross!

The goal of our enemy is to distract us in order to get us caught up in the things of the world. People who are not saved are conformed in the pattern of the world. The pattern of the world says abortion is OK, it says gay marriage is OK, it says that if you are a good person you are going to heaven. Some believe that they have the right to heaven based on their own personal beliefs. Again the only way to salvation is through Jesus! (John 14:6)

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. Christians are called to “not conform any longer to the pattern of the world,” with its behaviors and customs that are usually selfish and often corrupting.

Renew your minds constantly, because we all leek. Staying in God’s Word is an absolute must in order to gain more faith. That faith is what pleases God. It is that faith that heals us, transforms us and gives us the right to call God “Father”.