As I sat and reflected and prayed this weekend, I couldn’t help but wonder: “What should we do as followers of Jesus?
LIVE
REMAIN
GO
OVERCOME
…
REPEAT
LIVE
LIVE … as a child of God:
John 111 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
We are God’s children. And as a child of God—we are free. This is not to say that we are instantly sinless. We are sinless because we are His sons and daughters.
REMAIN
REMAIN … in Him
John 154 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Connection to God is our only way. It is the way we are to live and the only way to survive.
GO
GO … and make disciples of all nations
Matthew 1818 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We are to GO. Our God is calling us to GO and spread the gospel to the lost and to the broken. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life! That’s news for everyone we see.
OVERCOME
OVERCOME … by the blood of the Lamb and testimony
Revelation 1211 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
As we encounter opposition, we should never forget this. We are broken people who are sitting ducks for Hell. But God has us! His love is over us and His blood saves us! And we are to testify to His goodness in all things.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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David understood the following verse by doing what many of us forget to do. He asked “in everything” and he asked “in thanksgiving”.
Philippians 46 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
David continued … even after Goliath … or should I say ESPECIALLY after Goliath … to ask God, what should I do? He understood the concept of “In Everything”.
2 Samuel 510 so David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?” The LORD answered him, “Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands.”
David was by God’s testimony … “A man after God’s own heart”. Our gratitude to God is vital … we should always, and in all things, be thanking God for what He has done for us and around us.
Numbers 1110 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.
As we go through Thursday, let us not forget to ask … and let us not forget to be grateful. In all things, God wants to bless us.
In Everything With Thanksgiving
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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David understood the following verse by doing what many of us would call “the dirty work”. While his brothers took on the greater jobs, David “tended” to the sheep. And while not advertised, protecting helpless animals from predators is dangerous work. And in his down time, he grew in his faith by pursuing the Living God.
Philippians 46 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When David approached the battlefield to bring food to his brothers, he was equipped. And the shocking thing about the entire situation is this: Was David the only one asking God to help him? Because if he was, it is truly indicative of what we live in today.
We run through the rat race and we are actually too busy to even ask for help. I know that for me this is definitely the case.
Today … as we look at how important everything seems to be, let us not forget what is truly important. Because what’s truly important is that we ask God to help us defeat the giants in our lives … many of them we do not even think about.
As you do this today, follow another action of David: Declare God’s Glory. He writes about it in the 23rd Psalm.
Psalm 231 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
David declares who God is … and knowing Who God is tells us:
Who we are praying to
What we are praying for
Where we are as we pray
When to pray
Why we are praying
In all these things, we can defeat Fear, and Ungratefulness, and
Inadequacy, and ANYTHING ELSE that stands in opposition to God as He works out His plan in our lives.
Yes we are sinners.
But He is enough.
And He came to set the the captives free … So ask Him to help.
He Is Enough
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Stay Aligned and Strong, Reject Shame, Walk Into Your Calling
Even though our world is different, Paul understood what we go through even today.
The world always reminds us why we say “thy Kingdom come” when we say the Lord’s prayer. His Kingdom is where we want to be, and we spend a good deal of our time trying to make our kingdom like His Kingdom. We will never fully succeed in this endeavor.
Our hope is in seeking the King of that Kingdom.
This weekend, I was convicted to write this today:
Stay Aligned and Strong
Reject Shame
Walk Into Your Calling
Here are four things to think about as you face the day, the week, the month, or even the year.
#1. We live in a world that values RESULTS. Not always RESULTS that work for all, but RESULTS THAT WORK FOR ME. And the me culture is so hard to deal with. It celebrates only victories and rejects all failures. The shame, the condemning, the desire to be the best are constantly in our face. Remember what Paul said:
Romans 81 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
TRUTH NUMBER ONE
We Are Free In Christ Jesus
When we don’t “feel” free, we are called to reconnect with Him, to cry out, to pray, to worship, and to reset our feet on solid ground.
#2. We live in a world of comradery. Groups come together over a common enemy and work together to destroy their enemy, and then they find new comrades.
Romans 814 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
TRUTH NUMBER TWO
We Are In Covenant With God
He isn’t our “fair weather” friend. He is our friend for all seasons and all things. And in Covenant, we have a friend who will die for us who is INVITING US to call Him “Dad”. We have the Spirit of sonship.
#3. We are surrounded by challenges, and roadblocks, and setbacks, and our own selfishness. Today goes well … tomorrow wakes up to problems.
Romans 828 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
TRUTH NUMBER THREE
God Has A Plan
And as we strive and fight and look to do our very best, we have to remember: If It ISN’T Good, He’s not done yet. Thank God that He is working for good…that allows me to step back and seek to walk in His purpose.
#4. Our enemies and evil seem to win … a lot.
Romans 837 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.
TRUTH NUMBER FOUR
We Are Conquerors
Our enemies will soon be gone. And the Bible tells us that we are not just Conquerors, we are MORE than Conquerors. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but we are in a spiritual war with entities that we sometimes cannot see OR understand. But here is the truth: We are More Than Conquerors through Him who loves us.
Stay Aligned.
Stay Strong.
Reject Shame.
Walk Into Your Calling.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Moses was in the palace. He was placed in the perfect position to free the slaves. But, like all men, when we have freedom we get to make choices …
Exodus 211 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian …
I have to think that the Hebrew people did not just feel like they lost a prince … they lost a promise. I have to think that when Moses fled for Midian he took all of the hope that they had of gaining freedom.
How often does God set our lives in motion with the very intention of giving us freedom … and we walk into trouble as Moses did?
I love the name YHWH. Because in my pronunciation of it, it ends in “way”. Jesus gives us something that we can not have without Him. A Way. And without a way, we have no direction. And before long, we are snapping, like Moses did, and acting in ways that will not even be acceptable to those who do not know Him.
In the attached worship song, I think it says it best:
I Won’t Forget
The Wonder Of How You Brought
Deliverance …
The Exodus Of My Heart
You Found Me
You Freed Me
Held Back The Waters For My Release
John saw this after Jesus left our midst.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
Thank God that He loves us too much to leave us enslaved.
With YHWH, we have a Way.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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When Jesus chose to walk to a well and meet a rejected Samaritan woman, He was making a statement.
And it is a statement that we would do well to adopt today.
He was crossing out every possible human divider. He was not the least bit concerned about religion, culture, race, class, or even optics.
Not only was Jesus’ decision unpopular, it was a ministry killing choice for anyone who wanted to be a teacher. And that is just the point.
Matthew 123 … and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
He came, truly, to set the captives free.
He came to save the sinner.
And He came to cross out all of our reasons to be divisive or hateful or judgemental.
I find it amazing that some would call followers of Jesus racially or politically biased or tilted.
It is just the opposite.
John 413 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” …
21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem … 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
As we walk through our day, let us remember this: Jesus dropped everything to meet with one broken soul.
It was a decision that would cast doubt on everything He stood for that mattered in the eyes of man.
But for you … it was the very decision that would save your soul from the pits of Hell.
Come And Meet The Man Who Told Me Everything I Ever Knew
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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He had overcome his fear and literally cut the head off of the enemy’s Greatest Champion Warrior.
And it had led him to this very moment.
All he could do was beg God to save him.
Psalm 101 Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. 3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. 4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. 5 His ways are always prosperous; your laws are rejected by him; he sneers at all his enemies. 6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.” He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”
Cornered. Terrified. And certainly wondering why he had been put in this position, David hid in a cave as Saul purposed to end David’s life and strip away the divine favor that David had built.
And God would provide his chance. Saul wandered into the very cave where David hid. Vulnerable and positioned as a sitting duck, David’s chance to strike down Saul was right in front of him. It was the logical thing to do. And David was poised to do it.
But God had convicted a man who did not act in fear, but in faith. And in his faith David put God ahead of his own desires.
David’s actions followed God … not his own heart’s desires.
1 Samuel 245 Afterward, David was conscience- stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.
What a story.
The legend of the Warrior King grows the more you look into it.
And yet, this Warrior King is nothing more than a sinful man, as we find out in reading about his fall from grace due to his choices with Bathsheeba.
But that’s just it.
God isn’t looking for Perfect.
He is not looking for Flawless.
And He is not looking for Glorious.
Those are the descriptions only applicable to Jesus.
And we can thank God that we are not called to anything but Him. Because in our pursuit of being God’s own, we would simply crumble in the face of evil, just like David.
Our pursuits and endeavors are not directed to be perfect.
They are not supposed to be without blemish.
They are required to be REAL.
Jesus uses the phrase “depart from me, I never knew you” in Matthew 7 and Luke 13 because we are required to be vulnerable before God. Not perfect. Vulnerable.
And REAL.
As David spoke to God in Psalm 10, he was REAL. He worshipped, he celebrated, he questioned, he begged, and he cried out in all the ways that he could.
And he found that by walking with God, he would get through it.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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In a recent conversation, I was contemplating a concept called “my theology”. To be honest, I am not sure what that even means.
It’s not that I do not understand the concept, it is that I am not totally sure how to describe it.
As I got out of bed and grabbed a cup of coffee, I thought that I might take a crack at it.
Here is what I know:
John 11 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
Just as sure as Genesis 1 is the start of the Bible, John 1 is too. And some 2000 years ago, Jesus walked the earth with a common man. And this common man, John, wrote one of the greatest literary works of all time, and in it He claimed to be Jesus’ favorite.
John 314 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus showed up in the night not too long after that to meet a Religious scholar named Nicodemus. And in one of the most incredible conversations in human history, Jesus connects to the Old Testament scriptures WHILE opening up a door for all of man kind, saying that God loves the world so much that He is going to give His only Son, who was with Him in the beginning, so that WE, you and I, will no longer have to be sitting ducks for Hell.
Luke 420 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus then goes into the synagogue, reads a scripture from Isaiah, and then declares Himself God, surely setting Himself up to be killed. And in this activity, He breaks every political rule. He angers people in power, stops His day for people who are outcast, hangs out with unqualified and broken people, and lives out His days as a homeless itinerant preacher.
John 1835 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Jesus, is arrested, brought before a man named Pontius Pilate, and somehow avoids even defending Himself. He is exposed to an unfair trial and treated as a common criminal. Pilate KNOWS that He is not guilty, yet fears the repercussions of what that might cost him. And so he allows Him to be turned over to a mob that will beat, mock, accuse, and execute Him.
John 1930 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
In His final action before dying, Jesus says something that translates to “it is paid in full”, a statement that business people use to say that a loan is paid. To many, it must have been a crazy last statement of a man taking His last breath.
But to me, it makes perfect sense.
Acts 1629 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Not long after that, a man named Paul, who is traveling the region to punish, humiliate, and kill the followers of Jesus, changes teams. He converts. And in his conversion he has conversations like the one in Acts 16, where even his jailer can come and be saved.
To me, this is the craziest set of writings that I have ever read.
The most powerful man dies.
The King doesn’t rule, he submits to people who don’t have the ability to lead.
The champions of His story are former opponents who have converted.
None of it makes sense.
And yet, it does.
Our world is broken.
The people in it are broken.
The system is broken.
None of it makes any sense.
Until you read John, and then Ecclesiastes, and then Romans, and then Acts, and then …….
The reality is … it makes so much sense that I will chase it. And I certainly surrender to Jesus … He … is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
And that … is my theology.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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