PSALM 121:1-2 10/26/2021*

“I will raise my eyes to the mountains; From where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”

It is amazing how much power is in scripture when we slow down and read it.  Just two verses this morning but they contain a remedy for anxiety.

“I will raise my eyes to the mountains” is a choice…a difficult choice.  There are real and devastating problems out there. There are heart breaking sorrows and hard seasons that drain us of strength…. Raising my eyes is an intentional response to those trials. 

This passage explains why we look up – help comes from the Lord… The implication is my support is there waiting for me. I just must raise my head …. God is waiting for me to turn around…to reach my hand toward my Father.  

And in case I don’t realize the value of that opportunity, the psalmist explains who God is… “The Lord, who made heaven and earth”. The all-powerful ever-present King of kings…the Great I AM. The question is not can He deliver me…the question is will I turn to Him and be delivered?

It doesn’t say look around for a path of escape. Nor does it instruct me to look to my friends to bail me out…it says look up. 

At the end of the day, it is just me and God…and He loves me.  I either believe that or I don’t. If I believe it – it changes me. I am no longer a lonely victim. I am a beloved child of God waiting for my deliverance. 

This is not a “positive attitude” message it is much more powerful than that – It is a message about faith…Faith in a very real God who loves and protects me.  So, when I am downtrodden and exhausted, I have a choice to make… I can hang my head – or raise my eyes.  If I choose faith, I will receive strength and be protected in His shadow. 

So, in two verses we go from defeat and fatigue - to deliverance and confidence. With one decision the trajectory of my day is altered. 

So, what is your choice today?  Will you raise your eyes…or hang your head? God is waiting - the choice is yours. 

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” - Oswald Chambers

1 Thessalonians 2:4 10/19/2021*

“But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not intending to please people, but to please God, who examines our hearts.”

Who is your target audience? 

In this age of Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms, we seek mass approval not truth. Information is not evaluated on accuracy, but on popularity. 

The news outlets now report twitter reaction to events instead of the actual event. Our daily focus is on pleasing people we don’t know - and who don’t know us.  

Canceling what we don’t like, we ignore facts, and paint a fantasy that satisfies our emotions. All the while projecting the “perfect” life we want others to believe we have - as we envy the manufactured lives our “friends’ display.

It is exhausting, and this verse says it is a foolish way to live your life. 

As Christians we have an audience of One. 

You have been approved by God and that is the only “like” you need.  You have been entrusted with His message and your assignment is not to trend well - but to speak the truth in love.

Imagine waking up today without any objective except to please the God that already loves you.  How liberating it would be if you didn’t know, and didn’t care what the world wide web thought of you?  

What a relief to release the burden of pleasing a thousand online judges - and replacing it with enjoying the Grace of God. The peacefulness that generates - is how you were intended to live.  

Only God sees your heart and only His opinion matters. Stop carrying around the expectations of others. Your goal is to please God, not people.

As Christians we are not to be fragile.  We are fortified by our Father and our value has been established.  We must focus on loving other people - not on impressing them.…Sharing the gospel with them and being intentionally oblivious to the negative opinions of those who don’t appreciate us.

A work of art is not offended by a bad review…. that is between the critic and the artist. Let your critics speak to your creator if they have a complaint - and you just keep joyfully doing what He designed you to do.

“What other people think of me is none of my business.”- Mark Twain

2 Corinthians 6:18 10/12/2021*

"And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

The one name God is never called in scripture is “grandfather”. He is the Father of Abraham, and the Father of Isaac, and the Father of Jacob.  

Our relationship to God is always first generation… You are not a Christian because your parents are Christians. You cannot inherit salvation from your relatives.

Unfortunately, many approach God that way…Their parents knew Him, therefor they consider Him their “Heavenly Grandpa” – It is a comfortable arrangement since grandparents seldom discipline and are easily manipulated by their grandkids.

However, this is an inaccurate, and dangerous supposition.

God only relates to people on an individual bases.  This is made clear in one of the most frightening verses in all of scripture found in Matthew 7 when Jesus looks at some “religious” people and says, “I never knew you”.

If Jesus doesn’t have a personal relationship with you, then He has no relationship with you at all…You must have an individual connection with Him. God does not have distant relatives…no grandchildren, nieces, or nephews… He only has beloved children.

To become His child, you must understand the gospel message. Then you have to agree with the truth of your sinful condition… and finally – (the step that many miss) You must accept redemption by faith and claim God as your Lord and Savior. 

These steps make God your Father.  And that changes everything. 

It alters every aspect of your existence. No longer an orphan, you are now in close connection with your Heavenly Father and you can begin living the life you were created to live.

Stop observing other people’s relationship with God from a distance and trying to live vicariously through them. Accept God’s invitation and live each day connected to Him, enjoying His love and protection as His child.  

Only you and God are involved in that transaction, and He has already paid the price for your adoption. 

Claim the birthright that was purchased for you on the cross. And with Christs’ righteousness now accredited to you, you can securely walk hand in hand with your Heavenly Father.

“God’s children are God’s children anywhere and everywhere, and shall be even unto the end. Nothing can sever that sacred tie, or divide us from his heart.” — Charles H. Spurgeon

 

James 1:17 10/5/2021*

“Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Only the things of God are truly good. The world can only offer cheap imitations. 

Drugs and alcohol may offer a temporary numbing peace…Promiscuity can offer false intimacy to briefly mask loneliness…The love and pursuit of money can offer superficial feelings of self-worth. But none of it last - and when the respite passes, you are worse off than before. 

Things that are authentically good at their core only come from God. Which makes sense because He is the creator and designer of your life. He knows your needs and offers perfectly designed gifts that are eternally beneficial. 

The inner peace you long for can only be found in a relationship with a Heavenly Father who loves you and controls your life accordingly. 

Loneliness disappears when Jesus Christ lives within your heart and your relationship with God is a moment-by-moment reality.

Your self-worth has been eternally established by the fact that you were chosen and redeemed by God Himself.  He loved you so much He gave His only begotten Son…How could anything the world offers compete with that? 

What is stopping you from deciding to only accept authentic gifts from now on? …Is there any reason not to make a life changing decision to insist on the best from this day forward? 

It is after all – up to you. 

The key is that God will not share the throne of your life. So, you have a decision to make…. Reject the sin and tiny idols that contend for your attention, and you will see clearly enough to receive the incredible gifts of the one true God.

Clean house today.  Put God on the Throne and evict the false gods you have allowed into your heart. Reject the temporary scams that sin offers and insist on the authentic and perfect gifts from God.  

Confess your sin, Repent, and establish God as the ruler of your life and the provider of your needs…  and you will be amazed at the good and perfect gifts He has in store for you. 

“Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God … For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive” - Meister Eckhart