- Tuesday, 7/2/19
Proverbs 27:19, As in water face
answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. Water reflects the face, and
the heart shows itself. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Are you
reflecting faith? Joy? Quiet confidence? Love? Or, strife? Arrogance? Pride?
“When others look at me, do they see Jesus?”
Mark 2:7, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? A legitimate question: no one except God can forgive sins. Therefore, your priest cannot forgive your sins against God (could he forgive your mortgage debt to the bank? You owe more to God than you do to Chase, and He is far higher than Chase.) Also, your church cannot forgive your sins against God. (Could 10 of us agree that you have paid enough on your credit card and tell Visa to get lost?) If you aren’t 1000% sure that your name is written in Christ’s Book of Life, message me. If you have any doubts about your eternal home, message me. Eternity is long: prepare for it.
- Wednesday, 7/3/19 Matthew 28:19, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations... Not all are God called to be preachers, but every believer is called to GO. We’re to leave our safe haven to share the Gospel with the lost. At the minimum, that involves fearful risk and vulnerability. Are you going? 2 Kings 2:9, And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. He asked for more of Elijah’s spirit, NOT God’s Spirit. Our spirit enables or hinders God’s Spirit from flowing. He wanted to be twice as yielded. Are you yielded? Is your spirit/attitude blocking the Lord?
- Thursday, 7/4/19 Acts 12:23, And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. If you do a good job, or are beautiful or smart or talented and are complimented for it, be sure to deflect the praise to your God. Ephesians 5:18, And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit. When my wife left, I was forced to face some unpleasant facts about myself and to confess some sin that I hadn’t acknowledged before. In the 3 years since, I have prayed Psalm 51:2, Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, thousands of times. I truly want to be a good Christian and to be holy. As I stepped into the shower this morning, I again asked God to fill me, and I told Him, “Lord, I don’t want your fullness because I’m a good person, I want it because I’m not. I want you to fill me and wash out all of the garbage and cleanse me.” Do you want to be clean and holy, for His sake? The fullness of the Holy Spirit simply means that He controls us, like the water in a balloon controls it. There is a vast difference between an air-filled balloon and a water filled one...same latex, totally different aerodynamics and purposes. What are you filled with and what does it cause you to do?
- Friday, 7/5/19 Isaiah 45:19, I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. There truly is gold at the end of our rainbow. So keep seeking; in the dark, when you’re scared; when you’re tired; when you’re discouraged: keep seeking Him. Isaiah 49:14-16 may be the best verses in the Bible to memorize when everything is going well for you...so then you’ll have them stored up for the inevitable downturn: But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
- Saturday, 7/6/19 Isaiah 45:18, O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. There is a cost to disobeying and there is another cost for not obeying. Don’t pay two regrettable bills. Isaiah 53:4, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Jesus had a legitimate burden and the people assumed He was being chastised. Maybe you and I aren’t as smart as we think we are and maybe we don’t know the back story of someone’s situation like we think we do. A little compassion please...
- Sunday, 7/7/19 Proverbs 1:7a, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Enough outright fear to generally do right; enough awe/respect to keep my attitude/pride in check; enough affection to keep humble enough to admit and confess wrongdoing and to apologize to God and man. Mark 14:17-19, And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I? Notice the humility and self-doubt in the Apostles. Mark 14:30-31, And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all. Just an hour or two later, all of the Apostles said they’d NEVER do such a thing. They thought they knew the limits of how bad they could be. No, as a believer, a saved sinner, a redeemed saint, there is NO sin beyond our capabilities except the unpardonable sin. You and I are capable of ANYTHING. So, walk humbly, my friend. Walk humbly and walk scared. And realize that every other believer that you know is in the same boat, so walk with a forgiving, compassionate heart too.
- Monday, 7/8/19 Psalm 138:2b, For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. God magnifies His word above His name. Do we? We wear crosses, hats, or T-shirts showing we’re a Christian. Perhaps we need to do more to lift up the KJ Bible. Thought? Ideas on how? Luke 21:36, Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. This verse occurs in the midst of the Tribulation. So, to escape this persecution would almost certainly involve death. There ARE some things worse than dying. To us, the born-again, saved people, we won’t face the Tribulation Period, but we are still scared of death here and now. However, death is truly a friend ushering us into the presence of Christ, not an enemy taking us from our loved ones and “a good life.”
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