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I did not come to bring peace but a sword —Matthew 10:34 People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.  We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13). There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring . . . a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself. Nick Sigur

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28 I just spent some time on Facebook. Perhaps the stress of the season is starting to take hold.  How was your day today? Did you start to “lose it” with the people you had to deal with, the traffic, the harried employee in the store, the child a little too anxious for Christmas.  Are the circumstances taking over your Christmas? It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son. Tomorrow is the last Saturday before Christmas. Only a week left to go. Why […]

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him . . . —1 Corinthians 2:14 The majority of people think of themselves as being completely moral, and have no sense of need for the gospel. It is God who creates this sense of need in a human being, but that person remains totally unaware of his need until God makes Himself evident. But God cannot give until a man asks. That is the plan He has established for the way of redemption. Through our asking, God puts His process in motion, creating something in us that was nonexistent until we asked. This is the meaning of redemption— it creates and it satisfies. Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). When we preach our own experiences, people may be interested, but it awakens no real sense of need. But once Jesus Christ is “lifted up,” the Spirit of God creates an awareness of the need for Him. The creative power of the redemption of God works in the souls of men only through the preaching of the […]

Take up the whole armor of God . . . praying always . . . —Ephesians 6:13,18 It doesn’t take much reading of scripture to know that we are in a battle. We are referred to as soldiers. We are told to take on the whole armor of God. As soldiers we must know for whom and against whom we fight. We fight AGAINST forces that would keep us from Our God and His perfect will not against other of His children. We fight FOR others in intercession and in action as the Lord directs. What we should never do is wrestle WITH God.  If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25). Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God […]

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth —2 Timothy 2:15 You don’t really know something until you can teach it to someone else. Many of the truths we claim to live by remain cloudy and undefined in our minds. Try to express verbally what you believe about Salvation or Sanctification, Baptism or Communion. If you find yourself mumbling, then you have some work to do. If you cannot express yourself well on each of your beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don’t, other people may miss out on the blessings that come from knowing the truth. Strive to re-express a truth of God to yourself clearly and understandably, and God will use that same explanation when you share it with someone else.  Much of what we believe is based on what we have been “taught” but have never really learned. You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse your words to express God’s truth clearly. Then the time will come when that very expression will become God’s wine of strength to someone else.  Sometimes we will come across a great expression of […]

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled . . . —John 14:27 The Great Life is a life of peace. It’s a gift of God to the disciples of His Son. God’s mark of approval, whenever you obey Him, is peace. He sends an immeasurable, deep peace; not a natural peace, “as the world gives,” but the peace of Jesus.  A life of peace, does not mean a life without trial or difficulty. But when problems come and we are right in our relationship with God, we know that He is in control and the sense of peace remains. It is helpful when our sense of peace leaves to go through a checklist to discover where our peace has gone. Check first the status of our relationship. Are we trusting God ? Are we following His latest direction for our lives. Or have we tried to wrestle the steering wheel from Him and move Him from pilot to co-pilot? Have our lives become complicated or chaotic? That’s always a sign orfour attempt to control or lives or the lives […]

. . . men always ought to pray and not lose heart —Luke 18:1 People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective. You may ask why is there a need for intercession? God already knows the needs and can intervene or not has He will. I believe it is for the intercessor. By having the mind and perspective of God, we become more of what we should be. It grows and matures it. By having His perspective we begin to develop just a piece of the love He has for His children.  Our natural tendency as “good” men and women is to try to “do” rather than intercede. When we “do” we artificially inflate our pride, forget the need for God, and often do damage to the one in need. In essence, we interfere. It is said that “Prayer changes Things.” And so it does, it changes us. Consider the privilege of getting just a piece of the mind of God and His perspective.  If we don’t intercede, we begin to be self-focused and circumstance […]

. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . . —John 17:22 It’s amazing how early personality emerges. My great granddaughter is two years old and has a very distinct personality. She is different from the grand kids I have been blessed with.  We all display personality; yet just some of our personality is known to others. Personality is the unique, limitless part of our life that makes us distinct from everyone else. It is too vast for us even to comprehend. An island in the sea may be just the top of a large mountain, and our personality is like that island. We don’t know the great depths of our being, therefore we cannot measure ourselves. Others have no chance of completely understanding us. There is really only one Being who fully understands us, and that is our Creator.   Personality is the characteristic mark of the inner, spiritual man, just as individuality is the characteristic of the outer, natural man. Unlike individuality, personality is impacted by our contact with others. I am a different, hopefully better, person because of my forty plus year relationship with my wife. Personality merges, and you […]