Genesis 12:7 10/31/2017*28*

“The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land " So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.”

Do you build altars when God appears in your life?

Abram built something to remind him of the time God showed up and made a promise.  We should do the same thing.  

It can be a journal, or a scrapbook… or a “God box” with note cards or trinkets in it …  maybe just a calendar with stars on the days God delivers …but we need to do something that documents the times God has shown His power in our lives.

We need this because, when we are threatened, we have a propensity to forget all the times He has delivered us.  It is astonishing how quickly we revert to fear. 

Like the Israelites who began questioning God’s love for them soon after God had miraculously split the ocean for them to cross.  Or like Peter, literally standing on the water and questioning God’s ability to handle a wave.  It defies logic, yet we all are susceptible to it.

Strengthen your faith by becoming intentional about documenting God’s victories in your life.  Build altars and routinely sit and review the amazing things God has done.  God’s work is always easier to see when you look back at it.  

Faith is not a blind leap. It is facing today without fear because of what God did yesterday.  Build an altar to remind yourself.  Be still and remember the grace He has shown you in the past, then confidently walk into your future. 

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”  Martin Luther

Genesis 50:20 10/24/2017

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

These words were spoken by Joseph to his brothers who had sold him into slavery. How did he avoid resentment? How can we?

The two most destructive emotions on the planet are bitterness, and self-pity. Faith destroys the environment they need to exist.

Trusting God changes your viewpoint.  It transforms you from a victim to an operative. It allows you to see how God can use what should have destroyed you to make you useful and effective against the enemy.

Faith gives you the patience to “let the play develop”.  It allows you to resist panic and wait for God to reveal His plan.  Nothing is more empowering then realizing that God “has your back”.

Confidence in Christ is what allows an alcoholic to both recover and move on to help others fighting the same battle. It enables those who have waded through unimaginable grief to rescue others sinking in it.  It equips battle tested “veterans” who can provide priceless guidance to those just entering the fight. 

Completely Trusting God changes you. 

If you are in the middle of the storm today, hold on.  Know that God loves you, and trust that He will carry you through…then turn your gaze outward and find the “many lives” you are meant to save through the rain.

"It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary."
-  Charles Spurgeon

Isaiah 9:4 10/17/2017*11/4*

“For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor”

The coming of the Messiah brought freedom from burdens and oppression.  He shattered the yoke of slavery and broke the rod used to oppress His children.  That is what God does.

Has He done that for you?  Have you been set you free? 

We have somehow been duped into believing God came to enslave us… to load us down with rules and regulations and make our lives difficult.    But we had already done that to ourselves.

He came to break the chains of sin, to shatter the burden of the law, and to set us free to love Him as our Father. 

There is a song by Zach Williams called “Chain Breaker” and that is what God does.  In fact, the Gospel is the story of Jesus breaking the chains and redeeming you, back into freedom.

If your heart is burdened today and you think God wants to load more rules on your back, then you have been lied to… He came to save you.  He came to carry you through the storm you face today. His love for you put Jesus on the cross, and you can rest assured that no chain is stronger than His blood.

Come to Jesus today as your deliverer. Trust Him as your Savior and accept His gift of restoration. Rest in His love for you and feel the chains that bind you begin to fall away.

“If you’ve got pain - He’s a pain taker,
If you feel lost -  He’s a way maker
If you need freedom or saving He’s a prison-shaking Savior
If you’ve got chains - He’s a chain breaker”
Zach Williams

James 3:9 10/10/2017

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”

Don’t tell me you love me and then speak rudely to my children.  Those two things can’t exist together.

Apparently, God feels the same way.  This verse says we cannot praise God, and then with the same mouth, curse those He died to save.  It is a contradiction that is indefensible.

If we are to worship God, we must abandon our insensitivity, and cynicism towards His children.  We have become so accustomed to verbally attacking each other that it is now the natural reaction to any disagreement. 

The harshest personal insults go unnoticed in our society. Yet I assure you, they do not go unnoticed in heaven. We have become so flippant with our words that it seems we have forgotten that they are capable of great destruction.

1^st John 4: 19 says “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar.” So, are you a liar?  Apparently, there is no middle ground. Your speech indicates that either you love God and your brother, or you don’t.

According to the verse in James, you can use your words to worship God, or you can use them to demean and insult His children…but you can’t do both.

So, before you verbally unload on someone today, remember they are the only thing in all of creation made in the image and likeness of God…and that should change your tone.

“I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.” John Calvin

Acts 12: 12 – 16 10/3/20017

 "… many were gathered together and were praying.  And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed."

Have you ever been so busy praying… that you refused to be interrupted by God’s answer? 

These verses took place after an angel had miraculously freed Peter from Prison.  His friends had gathered in earnest prayer for his deliverance.  Yet when they were told he was free, they dismissed it and continued the prayer meeting.

Maybe they were praying out of habit, or obedience but apparently, they were not expecting an answer.

What about you?  When you are on your knees are you listening for a knock at the door?  Do expect God in His great love to answer you, or are you just reciting a mantra?  Have you become so consumed by the performance of prayer that you have forgotten it is a conversation?

At times we obsess over the composition of our prayer, instead of being overwhelmed by the power of the God we speak to…Our contribution is far less important than His.   We need not be eloquent to be heard.

Jesus says not to “babble on thinking you will be heard because of your many words” (Matt. 6:7).  Just go to your Father, spill your heart, and then listen.

Some of us are on our knees begging God to deliver…and His answer is pounding on the front door.

"...True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length." - C. H. Spurgeon