Author: Nick

It’s a New Year and we want to make a change. We want to make a difference.  Chuck Swindoll tells this story:Now, admittedly, some go a little nuts when they decide a change is needed. Larry Walters did. The thirty-three-year-old truck driver had been sitting around doing zilch week in, week out, until boredom got the best of him. That was back in the summer of ’82. He decided enough was enough; what he needed was an adventure. So, on July 2 of that year he rigged forty-two helium-filled weather balloons to a Sears lawn chair in San Pedro, California, and lifted off. Armed with a pellet gun to shoot out a few balloons should he fly too high, Walters was shocked to reach 16,000 feet rather rapidly. He wasn’t the only one. Surprised pilots reported seeing “some guy in a lawn chair floating in the sky” to perplexed air-traffic controllers. Finally, Walters had enough sense to start shooting a few balloons, which allowed him to land safely in Long Beach some forty-five minutes later. When asked why he did such a weird thing, Walters usually gave the same answer: “It was something I had to do . . […]

At Home in Your Heart? I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. —Ephesians 3:16-17   The doorbell rings. You aren’t expecting anyone. You go to the door with a combination of anxiety and anticipation searching your mind for some fact that would explain why you are getting a visitor at this hour. You open the door and there stands Jesus. Your heart jumps with joy but somewhere in your being you hope He doesn’t want to come in. You quickly scan the interior of your house in your mind to decide what room you should escort Him to. Will He know what has happened in each room of your home? Will He hear words that have been spoken? You know He will. His kind eyes say “Aren’t you going to ask me in?” So you do. You notice your laptop on the table and ridiculously hope that He doesn’t ask to use it to check His email. You hear the television softly in […]

Finding Your Contentment in Jesus   Hebrews 13 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,    “Never will I leave you;    never will I forsake you.”[b]   Think about this: What do I really want this year? If you tear away all the extras, what’s the bottom line? For me I think the bottom line is that I want to be content. The first step in being content is to honestly evaluate what I have. The first thing to recognize is that I need to compare myself with the rest of the REAL world, not what I see on TV or imagine others to have. Economically, there is no doubt I am “better off” than most of the world. I have more freedom and opportunity. But the most important thing is that I am better off than most of the world because  I have Jesus. As I face the new year, I want to find  contentment in Jesus, my companionship in Jesus, and my confidence in Jesus. Then I’ll find my comfort and my courage in Jesus.    When I am contented in Jesus and He […]

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” —2 Corinthians 4:7   Greg Laurie tells of a little girl who was asked in her Sunday school class what a saint was. Thinking of the saints in stained glass windows, she replied, “Oh, those are the people the light shines through.” She was right. That is exactly what a saint is: someone whom the light shines through. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). According to Scripture, a saint is a true believer. It seems so difficult for us to have men see our good works, yet glorify the Father. Don’t we love “taking credit.” We do so even when we have little or nothing to do with the outcome. How can we be sure that He gets the glory? It is possible when the light shining through us isn’t ours, but His. Consider:Do things that do not come easily based on our “natural” talents.Do things that He calls you to do; not that which comes naturally.Do things in groups […]

 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16   Life goes by so quickly, doesn’t it? An old friend of mine said it best when he told me, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes!” Remember as a kid, a month before Christmas, it seemed the magical day would never come. In the time that month would take to pass, now an entire year goes by. Life is moving so fast, and with it our opportunity to leave an eternally significant mark. If we failed to make a deliberate effort to leave such a mark, we will never do so. We need to abandon thoughts about “one day.” […]

 I want everything my God has for me in 2011. I want a productive fearless life. What we achieve is very dependent on our attitude. On what have we focused? What do we seek? Much of today’s devotional is based on Pastor Doucet’s New Year message. We are told in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you.” I think it is significant that the word used is “ask” not “demand” or even “request.” There is a certain amount of inquiry involved. We go to our God with a questioning heart. He is the one who knows what we need. It’s not a question of our desires or whims. We want what is best for us and no one knows that better than Our Lord. Often our askings go askew. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:3 I am reminded of the small child who will repeatedly ask for candy or to go out to play in the rain or to be left on their own near a busy street. All […]

The Key for Success in the New Year is to live it without fear. There are four reasons why we can do so, based on promises of God. Adrian Rogers put them this way: The Contentment of His Provision Contentment is not getting what you want, but it is wanting what you already have. First Timothy 6:6-8 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us therewith be content.” If you know Jesus Christ, you have contentment. If you’ve got clothes on your back, something to eat, and Jesus Christ in your heart, you’re rich!  Do you know why we have fear? Because we think our needs or the needs of someone we love are not going to be met. Or we fear that the things we think are meeting our needs are going to be taken away from us. The deepest need of your heart can only be met in the Lord Jesus Christ.  When I look back over my life I see clearly that He has been forever faithful in meeting my needs. There is […]