God created the heavens and the earth, He created the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon are a perfect example of how we are to be. See the moon reflects the sun, but when the moon gets in the way of the sun it creates a total eclipse, that total eclipse causes darkness to fall, like it was night.
Jesus is the Son of God (sun), He is the light to the world, He is our guiding light, we are the moon and He calls us to reflect His love to those around us. Are you getting the parallel? When we try to do it on our own without Jesus we cause a total eclipse, we cause the Son of God to be blocked out. I believe He has set an illustration of how He wants us to be to other, in our every day life, the Sun and the Moon.
When we don't have the sun in our lives we can feel cold and alone, but it is always here. Remember today, that Jesus wants us to reflect Him, He wants us to mirror His love, His light to those around us, we can't do it on our own and when start trying to, we start causing an eclipse. When the eclipse happens we begin to mirror those around us, instead of mirror the Son of God. We put ourselves before God and in that we will fail, because no longer is it about God, but self.
Today ask God how you can mirror Him, how you can be a light to those around you, instead of mirroring them, but by mirroring Him. He loves you, He called you by name from the foundations of the world, He wants you to demonstrate His love to others and He wants me to do the same. It has to be about mirroring Him and not mirroring others.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Quenching the Spirit
1 Thessalonians 5:19 says "Do not quench the Spirit."
How do we quench the spirit, it is by turning our backs on the very God that created us, that has provided for us today. When you are first in a relationship with another person, that person is so important to you, you don't hesitate to contact them just to tell them you love them. You do everything in your power to make sure that relationship works, you strive to honor them, to hold them in high regards, you work at your relationship, you give it everything you have. If you do not, guess what, it will surely die. Just think about a man and woman live a distance a part, they say they want to get married, but the man only sends letters when it fits his schedule, he gives her the attention only when it is good for him. The letters come once a week, he says he loves her, but the example he is setting is that it is only on his terms. That woman decides that this man is not for her, because he can't give her the attention she needs.
We treat God that exact same way, we only cry out to him when we need Him. We put Him on the shelf and when we have time we pull Him off the shelf to read a verse, or we just read a few chapters in Church on Sunday. If we truly loved Jesus as He calls us to, we would want to please Him, to thank Him, to call on His name daily and without ceasing. We would be afraid to quench the spirit, because that still small voice can sure get a lot smaller every time we put our things in front of Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 "12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances;for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."
Is it time in your life to take God off the shelf, to read the word, to pray and give Him a thankful heart. I wrote a blog yesterday, but I didn't post it, because I don't know if its legalistic or not. I talked about how we know we are Christians, yes Jesus knows our hearts, but as a man that has questioned if I have quenched the spirit by my actions, I wanted to dive into how I know. The Bible is full of examples, but I think the biggest thing is, the First and Greatest Commandment, Love the Lord your God with all of... You know the rest, if we do this, we want to please Him, we hunger and thirst for Him, we strive to be like Him, we seek Him, we seek His counsel, we put Him first in all things, we die to our wants and desires and we live for His. We take His teachings as they are and we strive to honor God and in doing so, we honor our spouses, our kids, our family. If we are not doing those things, we must seek God, we must ask for His forgiveness, because we are quenching His spirit.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. After I posted this, I found another verse that talks about how we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:25-32 "25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
How do we quench the spirit, it is by turning our backs on the very God that created us, that has provided for us today. When you are first in a relationship with another person, that person is so important to you, you don't hesitate to contact them just to tell them you love them. You do everything in your power to make sure that relationship works, you strive to honor them, to hold them in high regards, you work at your relationship, you give it everything you have. If you do not, guess what, it will surely die. Just think about a man and woman live a distance a part, they say they want to get married, but the man only sends letters when it fits his schedule, he gives her the attention only when it is good for him. The letters come once a week, he says he loves her, but the example he is setting is that it is only on his terms. That woman decides that this man is not for her, because he can't give her the attention she needs.
We treat God that exact same way, we only cry out to him when we need Him. We put Him on the shelf and when we have time we pull Him off the shelf to read a verse, or we just read a few chapters in Church on Sunday. If we truly loved Jesus as He calls us to, we would want to please Him, to thank Him, to call on His name daily and without ceasing. We would be afraid to quench the spirit, because that still small voice can sure get a lot smaller every time we put our things in front of Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 "12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances;for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."
Is it time in your life to take God off the shelf, to read the word, to pray and give Him a thankful heart. I wrote a blog yesterday, but I didn't post it, because I don't know if its legalistic or not. I talked about how we know we are Christians, yes Jesus knows our hearts, but as a man that has questioned if I have quenched the spirit by my actions, I wanted to dive into how I know. The Bible is full of examples, but I think the biggest thing is, the First and Greatest Commandment, Love the Lord your God with all of... You know the rest, if we do this, we want to please Him, we hunger and thirst for Him, we strive to be like Him, we seek Him, we seek His counsel, we put Him first in all things, we die to our wants and desires and we live for His. We take His teachings as they are and we strive to honor God and in doing so, we honor our spouses, our kids, our family. If we are not doing those things, we must seek God, we must ask for His forgiveness, because we are quenching His spirit.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. After I posted this, I found another verse that talks about how we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:25-32 "25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Highway Robbery
John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
The devil comes in all shapes and sizes. If you look at your life to see the area's you have found victory or are working to find victory, you will notice that there is a pattern of things that have come to destroy you or to steal the victory from you. Lets say you are working on praising God in all things, because that is a choice we have to make, the devil is going to throw everything at you, things that go wrong at work, at home. Look at Job, but the more we make a choice to stand firm in God, the more we praise Him for the things that He is doing, we will learn from those lessons, instead of cursing God for them, we will be thankful in all circumstances.
The devil does not want us to learn from our mistakes, he wants to bring us down, to destroy our thinking, to make us feel like we are defeated, but Jesus said Romans 8:37-39 "37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Stop holding onto all the junk and start praising God for every aspect of your life, even the difficult ones. For yes the devil will try to win, but guess what... Jesus has won already. Give it to God and when it comes back keep giving it to God until it no longer comes back, because Jesus has already won. These are hard choices, but they are necessary for us to walk in freedom.
Remember the devil wants to destroy you, he wants to lie to you, he wants to bring you down to his level, don't let him, stand firm in the one that has already WON.
The Bible is full of warnings about the lies of the devil, it is full of truths that we need to be watchful of, God is calling us to arms, are we arming ourselves or are we conforming ourselves to this world?
1 Timothy 4:1 "...in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons...." or 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12 "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The devil comes in all shapes and sizes. If you look at your life to see the area's you have found victory or are working to find victory, you will notice that there is a pattern of things that have come to destroy you or to steal the victory from you. Lets say you are working on praising God in all things, because that is a choice we have to make, the devil is going to throw everything at you, things that go wrong at work, at home. Look at Job, but the more we make a choice to stand firm in God, the more we praise Him for the things that He is doing, we will learn from those lessons, instead of cursing God for them, we will be thankful in all circumstances.
The devil does not want us to learn from our mistakes, he wants to bring us down, to destroy our thinking, to make us feel like we are defeated, but Jesus said Romans 8:37-39 "37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Stop holding onto all the junk and start praising God for every aspect of your life, even the difficult ones. For yes the devil will try to win, but guess what... Jesus has won already. Give it to God and when it comes back keep giving it to God until it no longer comes back, because Jesus has already won. These are hard choices, but they are necessary for us to walk in freedom.
Remember the devil wants to destroy you, he wants to lie to you, he wants to bring you down to his level, don't let him, stand firm in the one that has already WON.
The Bible is full of warnings about the lies of the devil, it is full of truths that we need to be watchful of, God is calling us to arms, are we arming ourselves or are we conforming ourselves to this world?
1 Timothy 4:1 "...in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons...." or 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12 "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Monday, March 7, 2016
Human Desires
I thought about what I wrote about our choices, about our human reactions and I started to wonder if people actually believe that there reactions are unchangeable, like a learned behavior. It is dangerous to say to myself I can not change, because I have put God in a box. I have limited what God can do, because He says all things are possible for those that love Him. It is the greatest commandment and if we do that then our reactions will not be out of our flesh, but be out of loving Jesus Christ and we should want to demonstrate His love to others.
It breaks down when we start justifying our reactions instead of asking God to forgive us for our reactions. If we start to look at the cause of why we are angry or having a negative response, it is because someone caused us wrong, or we got up on the wrong side of the bed, or its Monday, it is no longer about Jesus, it is about ourselves.
Paul said I do the things I don't want to do, even though I know it is wrong (or something like that). It is the human condition, but he later talks about that condition and says when we put Jesus Christ at the center that condition is no longer about what "I" want, but about what Jesus wants in me. It changes it all, so the negative reactions, the poor response, the anger at someone did me wrong response is no longer about Jesus it is about me. The response of blaming everyone else instead of looking at myself.
When we put Jesus truly at the center of our lives, you start seeing that it is about not what they do to me, but how Jesus loves them and He wants me to love them too, even when it is painful, even when they wronged me, even when I don't feel like it, because Jesus gave me a choice, He gave me freedom and He has given me grace. Shouldn't I do the same? It is not about me, it is about Jesus Christ who lives in me.
Thoughts on Choices
I was thinking about choices and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. I believe that today many people miss what a choice is, they miss that they can make them; I believe people see that their reactions are just that, but it is more than a reaction, it comes down to the choice that we make. A choice is a voluntary response to something that we do. Let me explain:
Driving down the road and a car pulls in front of me, my reaction is to curse the guy out, but that is the human flesh in me, we have a choice to make, either give into the human flesh desire to curse him out, or take a choice and just pray for that guy.
Same thing happens at work, we get into work late, our boss calls us out on it, our human reaction is to blame it on the traffic, to blame it on the kids, the choice that we have is to just allow our human desires to take hold or to make the choice to do something about it.
Or since it is Monday, our human flesh says oh man it is Monday, I don't want to start work, I don't want to go into work today, it is going to be a bad day, because it is Monday, but we have a choice to make, to praise God despite all of that, we have to make the choice not to give into the flesh.
In our relationships, our human flesh/desire is to give what we get, so if we do not feel loved, it is hard to give love, or if we feel slighted we want to do the same thing back. But it comes down to the choice to give into the human desires or to rise above and make a choice to be different, to love unconditionally, to not treat the other person the same way they are treating you. It is time to start making choices and stop just allowing our flesh to do the choosing for us.
Our human flesh is very powerful. Paul talks about it in all of his teachings, it is covered by David in the Psalm's, it is talked about by Job and so many places in the Bible. There isn't a place where the people in the bible said it would be easy being different then others, it comes down to choices. We either live like everyone else giving into the fleshly desires or we rise up and stand, be different, be who God is calling us to be. It is in making a choice to respond, to react differently, it is time to be the people that follow Jesus Christ no matter what, no longer basing our reactions on others, but basing them on Jesus Christ.
To make the choices is difficult, but no one said it would be easy to do what is right. The flesh says do it the easy way, but Jesus said do it His way. Which way do you want to do it today?
Driving down the road and a car pulls in front of me, my reaction is to curse the guy out, but that is the human flesh in me, we have a choice to make, either give into the human flesh desire to curse him out, or take a choice and just pray for that guy.
Same thing happens at work, we get into work late, our boss calls us out on it, our human reaction is to blame it on the traffic, to blame it on the kids, the choice that we have is to just allow our human desires to take hold or to make the choice to do something about it.
Or since it is Monday, our human flesh says oh man it is Monday, I don't want to start work, I don't want to go into work today, it is going to be a bad day, because it is Monday, but we have a choice to make, to praise God despite all of that, we have to make the choice not to give into the flesh.
In our relationships, our human flesh/desire is to give what we get, so if we do not feel loved, it is hard to give love, or if we feel slighted we want to do the same thing back. But it comes down to the choice to give into the human desires or to rise above and make a choice to be different, to love unconditionally, to not treat the other person the same way they are treating you. It is time to start making choices and stop just allowing our flesh to do the choosing for us.
Our human flesh is very powerful. Paul talks about it in all of his teachings, it is covered by David in the Psalm's, it is talked about by Job and so many places in the Bible. There isn't a place where the people in the bible said it would be easy being different then others, it comes down to choices. We either live like everyone else giving into the fleshly desires or we rise up and stand, be different, be who God is calling us to be. It is in making a choice to respond, to react differently, it is time to be the people that follow Jesus Christ no matter what, no longer basing our reactions on others, but basing them on Jesus Christ.
To make the choices is difficult, but no one said it would be easy to do what is right. The flesh says do it the easy way, but Jesus said do it His way. Which way do you want to do it today?
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