Psalm 105:4 say, “look to the Lord and His strength; seek his face always. Something simple is this, No situation changes His presence, His presence it was changes the situation. You, yourself have a direct link to God the Almighty through the Holy spirt because of what Jesus did for us (you) on the cross. This is so profound. You can be in His presence all the time, building your life around him, your work, family, relationships everything! It really is that simple. My prayer for you (who is reading this) is that you would look to the Lord in every situation you may face, that you would carry His presence always and never grow weary for it’s His strength. You will seek His face always and see it among all of creation. You would hear His heart in a song, see His beauty on a run, hear His voice in the wind and feel His nearness. Lastly that you allow Him to fully embrace you –In Jesus name Amen
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Isn’t our walk with the Lord wild? I mean, let’s just look at some current events… Revival is literally
global as millions are gathering to worship the Lord. Millions of Muslims (not an exaggeration) are coming to Christ, renouncing their religious identity, because they report Jesus is personally coming to them (physically or in dreams and visions) and telling them Muhammed was wrong, the Q’uran is wrong, and that He is God. They are not being taught to say these things. As a matter of fact, they face death when they say these things. Indonesia has hundreds of thousands of Muslims turning to God right now, just like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq are reporting. Indonesia is seeing a great outpouring, which has lasted about a year so far. South America is experiencing another burst of revival: Brazil has been in revival for about 4 years. Bolivia and Peru are just now getting a new birthing of revival. Buddhists in Southeast Asia are turning to Jesus by the thousands, daily. In Africa, there are hundreds of thousands of people gathering together all over the continent, desperately seeking God. In Northern Europe, I have seen pictures and heard reports of football stadiums being filled with young adults worshipping God. They are gathering in the tens of thousands to cry out for God to move in their cities and towns. Here is America, universities are exploding with revival as students have had enough of the world telling them what they can and can’t do. They just want more of God. They want Him. He is at the center of everything that is happening. His holiness and sovereignty seems to be the most important revelation people are experiencing. At the same time, we could choose to look at other current events… a significant portion of Christianity doesn’t want to acknowledge what God is doing, saying it isn’t God at all. Our culture is falling apart; men and women are trying to be each other, no longer desiring to be who they were created to be. Pastors are coming out as gay on a fairly frequent basis. Our politics and government are a mess. Our government, at this moment, more closely resembles 1933 Nazi Germany than it does 2007 USA. Our media can’t be trusted, regardless of what channel you watch. Science no longer uses science. Our public schools/education systems are so lost at this point, I’m not sure we can ever salvage it. Why am I saying all this? There are so many terrible things going on at the same time God is moving. Our eyes truly need to be focused on the right thing, and God is calling on us to join with Him. Today, as I drove into town, I was listening to talk radio and listened to two different stations. Both stations were talking about the same thing, but one side blamed “right-wing nut-jobs” and the other blamed “left-wing anarchists.” They just spewed their own opinions and twisted half-truths to sound like full truths. It was sad and even worse I began to feel emotions stirring up within me. I quickly became critical in my thoughts and desires, motivated to fight. As soon as I realized what I was feeling and thinking, I felt a check within me. God reminded me of what He is doing all over the earth. And this got me to thinking… What are we supposed to do? There seem to be two ways to go about all this stuff… We can either ignore the bad, choosing to only focus on what God is doing (which feels like we are passively choosing to allow these bad things to increase), or we can get active. The first line of thinking often quotes Exodus 14:14- “The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still.” This sounds great. Let’s just continue to ignore the problems, just stay focused on Jesus, and let God fight the battles. The problem is Exodus 14:15… God rebuked Moses for saying verse 14. It’s not what God wants from us. He wants more. So if the first line of thinking isn’t God, then it seems we have to go to the second which can be summed up by the quote- “God helps them who help themselves.” The problem with this is it isn’t scripture. It is NOT in the bible. This is definitely not from God, and it would be dangerous to think it is what God wants from His children. So then what? What are we supposed to do? Allow me to take a step back for a moment. I love this question. Typing it, I feel like it’s the first time I’ve ever asked this question, and that makes me laugh. This ought to be the most important question every Christian asks. “What are we supposed to do with all this evil in the world?” So far, the only scripture I’ve mentioned is bad advice, and then I’ve quoted the wisdom of this world, which produces death… but there are actually a whole lot of passages and verses that help us to know what we are supposed to do “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” – Colossians 1:10-14 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” – Ephesians 4:1-3 “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” – 1 Timothy 6:11-12 These are only a few of the many scriptures. 1 Corinthians 10, Ephesians 6, Romans 8, Galatians 5-6, Romans 13 are others. God is calling us to war, literally. But it isn’t the warfare the world knows… it’s a call to Spiritual Warfare, first and foremost. God is calling you, specifically to do the things that only you can do. This can only be done 1 way: we must be in prayer for direction. I think too often, our prayers are about our wants and desires, and the result is that our actions are about our wants and desires. What about God’s desires? That’s why it’s so amazing to see revival all over the world. We get to see what God is desiring: for all to know Him. He isn’t concerned with our politics, our economy, our culture, or our problems in the way that we are. God is concerned about people knowing Him. Instead of looking at all the problems the world is facing, maybe we should look at what God is doing in the world. And lastly, most importantly, walk in the manner that is worthy of His calling on your life. How do you do that, you may ask? In prayer, find out God’s heart. Get His courage. Get His confidence. Get His calling. Look at where you are needed and fill the void, for God. Don’t feel the void for your own agenda. After all, “Whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it unto the Lord.” It’s not about what we need to do or not do, it’s about what He wants. God doesn’t help those who help themselves. He helps those who diligently seek Him. I believe God wants us to fix the problems of the world. But He wants us to do it His way, not ours. He wants to transform hearts, and let’s be honest here, we all need that, even Christians (maybe especially Christians). I guess I’m trying to say talking and worrying about things doesn’t do anything for us. God is moving, so we need to learn to pay attention to how He is moving, and realize it’s time for us to move, too. Bless you… Does anyone else think it odd that Christians area always reacting to the attacks of the enemy, often not prepared for the storms and circumstances they are going through? So often, I find people asking for prayer after an attack has begun. I have a question for us: where are our intercessors? In other words, is anyone close enough to God to hear His warnings? Are we so selfishly focused on our own situations and issues that we don’t ever listen to what God is saying about others?
Today, I was reminded of how God speaks to people in the Bible. Now, I’m not saying He only talks to us one way. In fact, God speaks to us constantly, one way or another. He may speak to us by counseling us, or consoling us, or He may be speaking to us in correction or Fathering/shepherding us. But there are quite a few times where God speaks in a way of warning to prepare. Gideon was someone God gave warnings about the near future. God wasn’t there to pick up the pieces, because He was there before anything happened. He warned Gideon and gave Him instructions on how to prepare for the battles ahead, how to successfully navigate the problems ahead. Joshua was given the same instructions of preparation. Now, people made some mistakes and that required Joshua to gather information from God to find out what was wrong. But before that, God had given them direction and warnings about what not to do. God gave similar warnings to all of Israel through Moses in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Numbers. The Israelites knew they were supposed to be close to God, and throughout scripture we see God always warned His people about what was coming. Just consider Isaiah or Ezekiel, Jonah or Jeremiah. The scripture that spoke the most to me today was in Luke 22:31-32: (Jesus said) “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” My goodness, did that speak to me! Does this mean Satan came to Jesus and asked Him for permission to attack Peter? Jesus didn’t specify that, but He did say Satan asked. I personally assume Satan asked God for permission. If you know the context then you Jesus was referring to Peter denying Jesus 3 times. I don’t see that Satan came to Jesus to ask permission, but I do think Jesus saw Peter would struggle with Jesus’ capture and trial, and He knew the temptations were coming, that Peter would struggle. But Jesus didn’t just stop there, He gave a warning. He told Peter what was coming. I find this to be a true challenge to us. Does Jesus still warn His friends? If I consider myself to be His friend and a co-heir, am I close enough to Him that I am warned about what is coming, or am I often caught off guard by circumstances. It’s fascinating. Jesus told Peter that he was about to be tested by Satan, but just as fascinating is He didn’t stop it! Jesus told Peter he was going to get through it because Jesus prayed for him. Are you kidding me? It seems that so much of today’s Christianity is people gathering together to pray for the circumstances we are facing to cease, crying out to God with questions like, “Why?” But Jesus didn’t rescue Peter from the trial and temptations, and instead interceded for Peter to make it through. That’s pretty different. Just reading it, I felt like I was trying to swallow this huge stone, and that was truly a reality check. So often, we don’t realize the value of the trials and temptations. God wants us to conquer them! He wants us to find the joy in the midst of the problems, and to also realize we are there because of our own choices. Satan doesn’t tempt us by any other way than to look at our own evil desires and he just brings them to us. But it’s in this same temptation that we work through that the voice loses its appeal. Romans 8:34 says Jesus is our intercessor right now, this very moment. What is He intercessing for? Hasn’t He already set us free? Hasn’t He defeated the enemy? Yes. Then what is He praying for? He is praying for us to get close enough to Him so that we would realize the trials and temptations are for our good because they have purpose. But just as important is that we need to realize Jesus warned Peter before the test! He doesn’t want us walking blindly into a trap. He warns us, if only we would listen. Today, I feel the challenge to get my soul still enough to listen to God… not for a blessing or comfort, but for warnings. I want to be equipped like God equipped Israel and Judah, like He equipped David, Joshua, and Gideon. Now the key question at this point is, “How do we prepare once we have the warning?” Peter didn’t prepare very well, and faltered. Israel didn’t heed the warning, Judah didn’t either. So what good is it to know or have the warning? Honestly, because it would change how we handle the circumstances. We wouldn’t lose our faith, our hope, or our trust. We wouldn’t blame God for the test. We wouldn’t get bitter or struggle. We would, instead, be filled with faith, hope, trust, and praise by understanding it has purpose. What is the purpose? Just read Luke 22:32 again, and focus on the ending- “… when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” I’m tired of being caught off guard, and I’m challenged today to hear the warnings so I can be prepared, not necessarily for myself… but for you. And I hope you are too. Bless you… Like many things these days, the enemy has seemingly stolen the tools required to grow in our knowledge of
God. The principalities of this earth have stolen the rainbow, attempting to redefine the meaning and purpose of the rainbow from being a promise from God, to being a symbol of people who typically reject God, mostly reject Christianity, and desire to corrupt people into believing they are not made in God’s image or likeness. They have stolen sex, turning it from a beautiful gift from God for 2 people in covenant with Him into a casual thing anyone can do (and typically done without a covenant with God). They have stolen dance, from being an expressive form of worship into a degrading form of sensuality. They have stolen our born again identities, now grooming our children by telling them they can be born again with the help of doctors and medicine (and omitting the necessity of Holy Spirit). They have stolen the purpose of fellowship, correction, and accountability. They have even stolen science- God is omniscient, meaning He has omniscience. Quite literally, God is ALL-Science, and yet today, they are trying to make science anti-God. Meditation is another that has been stolen. Many Christians are under the impression meditation is a bad thing to do or practice, and are unaware that God calls us to meditate on His Word daily: 1) I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. – Psalm 119:15 2) Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. – Psalm 119:27 3) I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. – Psalm 143:5 4) …but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. – Psalm 1:2 5) Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. – Joshua 1:8 As you can see, there are quite a lot of scriptures telling us to meditate on God and His Word. There are 5 reasons to meditate on His word that I can think of, and I would like to share them with you. Meditation has enormous benefits for our growth in God, and when we do meditate things happen: some mountains move, some cloudy things become clear, and I have also found that some things that aren’t exactly normal or natural for me before I meditate seemingly become critical for my life afterwards. 1 st - Meditating on the Word of God helps us to refocus on God, fixing our eyes on His ways and words. So often, we get distracted by the chaos and circumstances that affect us negatively and we take our eyes off of Jesus (just look at Peter when he was walking on the water). Meditating on the Word of God and His character aids us by helping fix our eyes on Him again. Meditating on the Word even helps us find clarity on what we ought to be praying for. It is so easy to lose focus, and one of the benefits of meditation is that it truly helps us refocus on God. 2 nd - Meditating on the Word of God helps us to learn and understand what God is speaking to us and doing for/in us. The more we meditate, the more we hear from Him, since we are refocused on Him, and the more we hear from Him the more we gain understanding about what God wants from us, as well as for us. Meditation not only refocuses us on Him, but clarifies what God is currently doing in us so that we can actually align ourselves with His will and plan. Without meditation, our focus and understanding are both quickly lost to God, and we become consumed with the storms around us. 3 rd - Meditating on the Word of God helps us to remember all God has done for us and through us. It is all too easy to get so wrapped up in our present situation that we can’t see or recall our past (the incredible things God has done), or even if we do remember we tend to belittle or simplify it. What used to be a powerful testimony, filled with gratitude, suddenly feels like a small thing that was taken out of context… all because the storm we are facing is so overwhelming. Meditation on God’s Word actually cleanses our lens so we can recall the wonderful goodness of God. It is in the meditation that Jesus calms our storms, brings peace and joy to our soul, and gratitude begins to flood the dry caverns deep within us. For example, David’s Psalm 8 is a beautiful result of Meditation. 4 th - Meditating on the Word of God helps us to worship. Meditation is a part of worship. Once we have gained focus, heard what God is speaking, and remembered all God has done for us, we find our hearts have been prepared for Worship. This is why Psalm 100 tells us we enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts and we enter His courts with praise. When everything in our lives seems to be going wrong, if we would get still and make time to listen to God and meditate on His word, my goodness the transformation that comes! I find that meditation is most powerful when I am not necessarily right with God. He points out my eyes are not focused on Him, He reminds me of what He has said, what He desires for me, and He reminds me what He has done and who I am. What happens after that, I find, is absolutely transformational. I find healing there, and my automatic response to that is I cannot contain the desire for worship. In short, meditation leads to true Delight. And those who delight in the Lord receive the greatest rewards… 5 th - Meditating on the Word of God helps us to learn how to apply the Word. In Joshua 1:8, we read the reason for meditation is “so you may be careful to do everything written in it.” Meditation doesn’t just heal our relationship with God, but it also corrects our actions, desires of our hearts, and our character. I have found quite a few places throughout the scriptures that tell us we must not simply hear or know about the scriptures, we must do what it says. It is critical for every one of us to know what God requires of us, not so that we look good or so people like us, but so that God gets glorified. Some of His commands are very difficult to do. Some are scary. Some are overwhelming. I have found the more I meditate on the Word, the more clarity I gain on how to do what God asks of me. Some things appear to be very difficult, but once we learn how it is easy. For example, the first time I tried to ride a bike, it was very hard. I fell over and crashed. I remember trying to learn in the alley behind our house in Taft, TX and crashing on the rocks as my dad was running after me to try to help. But when I learned HOW to ride, how to keep my balance, nothing could stop me from riding. The same principles apply to driving a car, building a cabinet, fixing plumbing, working on a car, making friends, and so many other things. Once we learn how to apply what we know, the actions aren’t very difficult. Meditation, according to the Bible, is the key. And above all, all of this MUST be done WITH Holy Spirit. It is only HE who can bring the Word to life, and who can teach us all things. So today, take some time to meditate with Holy Spirit over the Word of God. Take some paper and a pen, and be ready to fill up your sheets of paper with notes from the best teacher. You will find such refreshing as He heals your eyes, your thoughts, your heart, and your actions. Bless you… “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of
Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” – Matthew 5:10-12 What a mouthful. I find it interesting that this passage is both romanticized and avoided at the same time. I mean, we definitely romanticize this as an idea… “blessed are you when you get persecuted, because you have been found worthy of the Gospel. How amazing. It’s such a great honor!” But how many people do you know that are really, truly being persecuted for living such a bold lifestyle, proclaiming the Gospel, putting Jesus on display, living in true righteousness? We don’t. We see people being picked on for being Christian, but what does it mean to be persecuted for righteousness? When things get truly hard, do we lose faith, or are we encouraged and excited about it? Matthew 5:12 says to rejoice and be glad! Too often we, as Christians, don’t count the cost for living out a lifestyle of righteousness. We think about and imagine the cost for being a Christian, but rarely do we truly live righteousness out. Like I said, it’s romanticized but not lived. What is the difference between being a Christian and living righteously? Well, I would say being a Christian looks like going to church on Sundays, maybe letting people know you pray and are available to pray for them, being kind to people, being a good person, etc. When we say we are Christians, we typically describe that by explaining all things that are done person to person. But living righteously, I believe, means walking as Jesus walked (see 1 John 2:6). It isn’t enough to claim a belief system. There must be action inside you. Also, there must be JOY. Joy isn’t easily come by. You can’t simply desire to be more joyful, and poof! You are… Psalm 16:11 tells us joy is a gift from God, and it comes from abiding in His Presence. Joy is a product from living in close proximity to God, not in theory, but in absolute reality. Psalm 30:11 says, “You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me in joy.” See? It’s Him. He gives us joy. We don’t just choose joy. We actually choose to be close to Him. His presence nearest us produces something in us. This will result in JOY, obviously, but it will also produce sparks from within us that will consume what is around us. We will bear fruit, and that fruit will be righteousness. We will reflect His Righteousness! We won’t just be peaceful or kind. We will begin to look and act like God on the earth, to the people around us. When we do this, persecution will definitely come, and you won’t like it very much, but then you will know that returning to God’s presence will fill you with joy and gladness. No one enjoys persecution. But His presence heals our hurts, as well as taking away our habits. The problem is too often, we Christians in the West try to make a shortcut. Instead of removing things that aren’t of God and getting close to Him (hopefully you are aware the closer you are to God, the more He burns out of you and off of you), we try to simply act like Him, or even worse we try to add Him to our lives in a way that benefits us. Christians that live in parts of the world that suffer true persecution count the cost for following Jesus, daily. They consider Christ to be worthy of any and every price. To know Him, to spend time in His presence, and to read His words are literally everything. The cost doesn’t come close to the reward. It isn’t romantic to them to suffer. His presence is romantic. There is nothing better, to them, than looking into the eyes of their Beloved. But here in the West, Christians too often see Jesus as a benefit, or bonus, and not as a cost. Here, we tend to see Jesus as an add-on that upgrades our lives. And, of course, if the upgrades don’t come soon enough, or aren’t beneficial enough, too many people just walk away, or even worse blame Him or create doctrine around how He doesn’t always do what we ask… as if God ever says “no”, or “not right now.” We serve and love a God who first loves us, and He desires to have intimate relationships with each and everyone of us. I am my beloved’s and He is mine. Is there anything more beautiful? So let me ask you two questions: 1- How much has Jesus cost you? Maybe you’ve paid a heavy price for following Jesus and living righteously. Maybe is been mostly about you and your benefits. Maybe your relationship with God is more about you than it is about Him… Today is a good day to change that. 2-Are you filled with Joy in the midst of the heavy price of following Him? The best way to get Joy is to get close to Him. As you can see, the remedy for a lack of joy is the same as changing your relationship from a selfish one to all about God. If you are anything like me, this has been an enlightening blog. I hope it has touched your heart, and that it has given you fresh perspective. It’s time to count the cost, to see the beauty of His love, and to invite His presence to dwell powerfully within us. Bless you… “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” – Matthew 5:9
This is one of those impossible Beatitudes we often nod at and totally ignore. The way I often hear people interpret this sentence is more like, “Peacemakers are good, and we as Christians should strive to do that.” The way I see it applied is more like, “If someone is kind to me, I will keep the peace. If they don’t, surely Jesus doesn’t expect me to let them walk all over me.” Something definitely gets lost in translation, and certainly Jesus set the bar quite high. What does it mean to be a peacemaker? Well, it is someone who is actively making peace wherever they go. I have a couple of thoughts: 1) There is a huge difference in peacemaking and peace keeping when we are applying them to our lives. Keeping peace assumes there is already peace. A peace keeper is simply someone who makes sure nothing goes haywire. But a peacemaker is someone who finds areas where there is No peace and they heal the situation. 2) As you see, when we put peacemaking into an applicable practice it becomes quite an intentional, ACTIVE effort. A Peacemaker is not a passive person. They are not simply being nice to keep people from getting upset with them. They are purposeful, looking for problems between people that need to be healed (whether in their own life, or between others). The Peacemaker MUST initiate healing and reconciliation- and this cannot be done by avoiding people. A peacemaker doesn’t avoid conflict… (did I mention how difficult this Beatitude is??) 3) Peacemakers must seek True Justice. Truth is required in their life (and not just a little. They NEED truth). You cannot create peace without love. Love is the essential element to creating peace. I find it to be beautiful when I contemplate the Peace Jesus left with us. It was filled with Love. Is ours? Love requires truth. Have you ever met a loving person who was also deceptive in all their dealings? No. Love and Truth are so closely related they can’t be separated. So for you to make peace, you must be a person who loves and knows truth. In order to heal relationships, loving them is required, and not just a theory of love, but a real, tangible practical knowledge of love. In other words, the more you practice loving, healing and reconciling relationships, and making peace, the more you experience God’s love in your own life. It’s beautiful (and to be quite honest, it’s relieving) to know I don’t have to have Love and Truth completely perfected in order to imitate God (yes, Peacemaking, loving people, speaking truth, healing wounds, reconciling relationships… these are things God does that we are called to imitate). Isn’t that a relief? 4) Peacemaking is essential for the Body of Christ. How can we be Children of God if we can’t get along? How can we have problems inside our families left undealt with, and still think we are somehow walking in righteousness? It’s preposterous to think that way. Reason being, We are a family in God. We are connected to each other, and God has set up His Kingdom in such a way that we are to all work together. “12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by [3] one Spirit into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” – 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 It’s pretty clear we are not supposed to be independent people, independent churches, independent denominations, etc. We are all supposed to be working together, helping each other. In this, we must rebuild our relationships with each other in order to walk in the righteousness of God. Now, I know that each of us has been given His righteousness, and it comes from Grace through our Faith in Jesus. I’m not talking about whether we are righteous in this post. We are. We are righteous. Jesus made us His Righteousness (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). However, what I am talking about is whether or not we are walking IN His righteousness or not. I don’t believe it is possible to walk in the Righteousness of God and yet not be actively making peace with everyone in our lives. And this is very difficult… impossible without God. But if He is calling us to this ministry of reconciliation and peacemaking, we must be encouraged in knowing He equips those He calls. So, remember Jesus’s words… “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” – Romans 12:18 God is with you. He is for you. He has blessed you. He has equipped you. He has given you His peace. Now go and make peace. Bless you… I have a good friend who teaches the greatest vengeance God can dish out is to take away all the
evil Satan has done in this world. I wonder how if we realize that… The greatest vengeance God can bring isn’t to smite our enemies, or to bring worldly justice against people who are constantly unjust in their dealings. Instead, the vengeance is when God removes every inch of ground the enemy has to stand on. The Best vengeance is when God uses the people who have been closest to the devil, when He turns them into His children and then raises them in such a way that they become His greatest weapons against the devil. That is the greatest vengeance. When Jesus began His public ministry, He quoted Isaiah 61 as an announcement: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”- Luke 4:18-19 I find it extremely interesting that Jesus didn’t read the rest of the passage from Isaiah 61. If He had, it would have finished with, “and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.” Some would speculate that He stopped because these are two different things: 1) Year of the Lord’s favor, 2) Day of vengeance of our God. That’s interesting. I can see why they believe that. Maybe they are right, maybe they are wrong, I don’t know. What I do know is Isaiah’s version doesn’t stop at the day of vengeance. Instead it stops at “comforting the mourning.” Apparently, when Isaiah heard God say it, the day of vengeance was a day of comfort. As a matter of fact, Isaiah mentions the year of favor multiple times throughout his prophetic book. For example, Isaiah 49:8-13 talks about it. This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, Come out, and to those in darkness, Be free! They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See they will come from afar- some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan. Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song O mountains! For the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.” This is a beautiful passage, isn’t it? Hopefully it gives more clarity for you about the year of favor. But did you see it? The last sentence… For the Lord comforts… but He comforts on the day of vengeance, doesn’t He? He doesn’t comfort in the year of favor- who needs comfort when they are being blessed?? Who mourns while they are in the downpour of blessings in His presence? When Jesus came, He wasn’t just a baby bringing hope. He wasn’t just God fulfilling a promise. He was destroying the work of the devil. He was light coming into darkness to remove its hold. And He didn’t just ask us to believe in Him… He is still asking us to become His light and to still drive out the darkness. The past few years have been pretty dark, haven’t they? Politics, inflation, health issues, pandemics, and our media platforms have flooded the earth with darkness: fear, anger, worry, anxiety, selfishness, laziness, apathy, greed. Darkness has grown bold and strong. But do you know what? It’s a new year. And there is a new hope. I’m not talking about hoping things will get better. People hope that every year… What if 2023 is a year where we stop looking for something that sounds good, and start partnering with God. What if we turned on the brights and flooded the darkness of this world with so much light that favor shined upon us? What if we stopped caring about our feelings and situations and just made a conscious effort to be the vengeance of God? What if we were the thing that God used- taking something that the devil thought was his, and instead punished him for all he has taken? What if we recovered all that we lost? What if we got our “stuff” back? Today is the day of vengeance. Today is the year of the Lord’s favor. Today. Bless you… |
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