Who Are You Following?

"Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires." The apostle Paul made this statement in the book of Romans, and it makes me wonder where have I been living? I mean, where have I set my mind each and every day? Who is in control of Dave, his flesh or his spirit?

There is this war that wages in my members daily. It is a constant battle to see who is going to come out on top too. Will my flesh win today, or my spirit? Jesus told us that our spirits are willing, but that our flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41) This is not to say that our flesh is stronger than our spirit, not at all, but it can be stronger if we choose to let it. We must decide daily which we will let lead us. Sometimes we must decide hourly or even minute to minute. But the really awesome thing is that we get to decide.

Flip Wilson coined a phrase back in the day, "The devil made me do it!" in his comedy routine.

And while this is funny the way he tells it, it really isn't true. The devil can't make us do unless we choose to follow the leading of our flesh and decide to do it. This is one of the things that I think the devil has put over onto people's minds for such a long time, that we just can't help ourselves. Well we can, if we choose to put our flesh under and be led by our spirit man.

I won't lie though, it can be a challenge, this is why Jesus told us to take up our cross and die daily to our flesh. And it wouldn't kill you to say no to your flesh once in a while. Show it who's boss so to speak. Instead of eating that sugary, delicious piece of chocolate cake for dessert, decide to pass on it and spend that five minutes in the Word of God. When your spouse asks you to do something, instead of letting your flesh decide for you, follow your heart and make the decision to choose to love them and offer yourself to go with what they've asked.

If you will begin to follow your heart (spirit man) instead of your flesh after a while you will be amazed at how much more powerful a Christian you will become. Just don't get discouraged if you fail, go to 1 John 1:9 ask God to forgive you then get back up on that horse and ride him again. You can do this, otherwise God lied, and if God lied then why are we wasting our time huh? Mercy Me did a song a few years back that kind of reminds of what I've been talking about today. Check it out.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Are You Over Salting?

Jesus said in Matthew 5:13 that we as Christians are to be the salt of the earth. So I’m wondering, have you ever set down to eat, grabbed the salt shaker and over salted your food? Too much salt can actually leave a bad taste in your mouth. That’s not very pleasant is it? Then why is it that so many Christians feel the need to get all up in people’s business when it comes to presenting the Gospel?

We are commanded to preach the good news to a lost and dying world, and I get that. What I don’t understand is how some people go about it. The people who use doom and gloom, or hellfire and damnation as the tool to win the lost don’t make any sense to me. I mean, yeah they put on a pretty good show, but I thought it was the goodness of God that leads man to repentance, (Romans 2:4) not just the fear of going to hell.

God’s plan for mankind is a good one. Jesus himself said that he had come to bring the good news to the poor, set the captives free, heal the blind and proclaim that God’s favor had come. (Luke 4:18 – 19) Even a casual look through the Bible will reveal that Jesus never preached a hellfire and damnation message to the lost. Those types of messages seem to be full of anger, and the only people that Jesus ever seemed to be angry with were the religious people.

I think that it is so important that we reach the people who are in our sphere of influence; we are commanded to do so. But we will do that so much better if we develop good solid relationships with them first. Through those relationships, they will see how good God is in our lives, and then they will desire that in their lives too. This is when they will ask us about the hope that is within us (1 Peter 3:15), to which Peter says we are supposed to share this information with them in gentleness and respect.

So I think it’s time that we stop over salting the lost, and instead start to build relationships with them. Taking time to invest in their lives and not be so concerned with another notch on our Christian belt. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Are You Straining Gnats?

Matthew 23:23-24 NLT “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!”

As I read this today, I was amazed to see that Jesus did in fact tell the people that they should tithe. This is something that so many people will argue is not in the New Testament and will fight you over I have found in the past. Funny, God set it up as a way for His children to be blessed, but unfortunately people have made it all about the money and not about the relational portion that bringing your tithe to God that is the more important aspect. But I am not here to debate tithing, it is the other part of this passage that grabbed my attention.

Jesus says to tithe, but no to neglect the more important things; justice, mercy and faith. So that got me to thinking, do I do that? I mean my wife and I bring our tithe every week to our local storehouse, but when I bring it to God have I missed the more important things too? I don’t want to be a Pharisee, that much is for sure, but perhaps that’s been happening and I haven’t even realized it.

How many people do you come into contact with in a day’s time? My bride and I started to watch the movie Forrest Gump last night and as the movie progressed and Forrest told his story to whoever would listen, or even those who ignored him I had the thought, “How many times do I miss an interesting person because I dismiss them out of hand because they are different, or maybe someone I don’t think can help me?”

Gandalf tells Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” Now unlike Frodo who was wishing that Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance, I think sometimes I have dismissed the very people that God intended to use to bless me. And I’ve probably been dismissed by someone that God wanted to bless by using me too.

This is an interesting thing to me too because I say I want God’s best in my life, but if I’m not willing to try and relate to everyone the same way, regardless of how they look, or act how can that be true? I mean God is no respecter of people why should we be? I’m sure that I will have to give this some more consideration in the days ahead.

I think I’ll begin to work on doing the more important things of showing justice, mercy and faith in my relationships in a much larger way now, and each time I drop that offering envelope in the bucket maybe it will help me remember to do that as well. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Are You Listening To The Rabble?

Look at this passage of Scripture found in Numbers 11:4 AMP, And the mixed multitude among them [the rabble who followed Israel from Egypt] began to lust greatly [for familiar and dainty food], and the Israelites wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? This leapt off of the page at me this morning, because I'm afraid that I too, have been swayed by the rabble in my own life from time to time.

I looked up the word rabble and it means, a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people : mob : the lowest class of people. I'm sure that you have run into these types of people before as well, they may be well meaning, but usually have a "Debbie Downer" type attitude. You know, the if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all kind of people.

In this story about the Israelites, two years has passed since they left Egypt and they had been eating manna for a while. It was as they listened to the rabble their attitude about life began to change. This is not to say they were not to blame, they still made the decision to complain, whine and cry. You will see this again and again in this story of the Children of Israel following Moses in the wilderness. I for one have tried to learn the lesson of "not complaining" from these stories, because I don't want to wander around for a long time not doing what I should be for the Kingdom.

My question this morning is who's voices are you listening to? Are you listening to what God says in His Word about you, or do you hear the rabble complaining? You can't stop the rabble from running their mouths, but what you do have the power to do is to stop your mind from believing what they say over what God says. If you hear, the economy is so bad, I don't know how we're going to make it. Don't believe that! The truth of God's Word is that it is He who supplies all our needs according the His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. If you hear someone say, it's the flu season, don't believe them and just agree, speak the Word which says that by Jesus's stripes you are healed.

We are the captains of our own destiny when it comes to what we believe and what we get from the Lord. He loves everyone the same, but not everyone gets the same things. This is not because He shows favoritism, He doesn't. He has hidden all of His promises in the Word for us to find and begin to walk in. He's hidden them for us, not from us but there is a catch, and that is that you have to find them. And when you do, and start walking in the truths that you find there, you will see how much easier it is to ignore the rabble and what all they are saying and truly find the blessing of the Lord in your life! Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Anticipation

This commercial for Heinz ketchup from my youth reminds me of where I am today. What do you do when you have to wait for something? I know that patience is a virtue, and it is something to be developed in my life, but I don't want to wait. How about you? Do you like waiting for something? What do you do when you have to wait? How do you handle it?

I've been waiting for something in my life to happen for about a week now, and truthfully the longer I wait the less likely it seems it's going to happen. Now, I know it will, but the longer I wait the more impatient I seem to be getting. I guess I'm like a kid waiting to open his presents on Christmas morning, I'm sitting there looking at those gifts but I've been told to wait until after we have breakfast to open them up. Cooking bacon and eggs never took so long.

And that is the crux of it right there, it's all in our perspective of how we see things. We perceive that it is taking a long time, even though it really isn't. Time doesn't stand still, no matter what we actually think. The children of Israel had to wait on Moses to come back down from the mountain, and the first time he went to speak with God they didn't do so well, and it cost them. So maybe a little anticipation is a good thing, letting it develop patience in my life can't be too bad a thing now can it? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Who Do You Serve?

Choose you this day who you will serve. This is something that I think about often. Who do you serve? Maybe you say that you don't serve anyone, but if you were to be totally honest you would have to say that you do. Even if you don't serve anyone else, you serve yourself. We all serve someone, some are better at it than others. I mean you've had poor service in a restaurant haven't you? There are just some people who are more predisposed to serving that others.

It's really funny because in the Kingdom of God we are encouraged to serve one another. Jesus actually told the disciples that in order to become first in the Kingdom you had to serve everyone else. He even said that He didn't come to be served, but to serve. Serving is a prerequisite in the Kingdom of God. He expects that we are going to serve, but do we do that willingly?

Every day we have choices to make. Some of them are simple and others are more complex, but we choose and nobody can choose for us. In order to really serve someone well, you have to make the choice to do so. And in order for your choice to matter, you have to do it willingly. We've all been there, you need to serve someone at work say and you do what is expected of you, but you grumble and complain the whole time you are doing it. That is not really serving. Serving the way that it is supposed to be done is doing what is required of you, and having a great attitude while you're doing it.

I think the main thing to bring with you when you serve is the knowledge that even if this is something that you would rather not be doing at the moment, you go ahead and do whatever is required of you to the best of your ability and place your own desires and wants on the back burner. A little delayed gratification never hurt anyone, yet I know from my own life that my flesh sure tries to tell me that it does.

Life is busy, we have things pulling us from a thousand different directions, but if we will choose to serve our fellow man, God will see to it that we are promoted at the right time and in the right place. His plan for our lives is so much greater than we could ever imagine, and if we will walk the way He tells us to in Scripture and serve those around us, He will see to it that we have everything that we need. That's just how we do it in the Kingdom of God.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

What Are You Preparing For This Year?

It's the beginning of another new year, things are already moving quickly as we approach the second week of 2012, and I'm encouraged to think about what I'd like to see in my life and that of my family this year. We were told by our pastor on the first Sunday of the new year that resolutions are not a bad thing, because even in Scripture we are encouraged to write our vision for our life down and make it plain so that we can run with it.

This basically is about setting goals for your life, and this is something that I have not been really good at, but am wanting to change for this year. There are things that I want to do this year, but if I don't get them on paper and look at them from time to time I will once again be at the end of the year looking back wishing that I had done more.

There is nothing wrong with planning, I think where most people miss it is that they think they have to plan things that they can actually do, not just dream about things that may look impossible. I love how Jesus said that God is a God of the impossible. When things look to me as if there is no possible way, Jesus says to me, "Don't try to do this in your own power, with man things are impossible, but with God all things are possible."

All things are possible with God, let that sink in. I mean if you knew that you could not fail in the things that you wanted to do, what things would you do? Would you risk anything, or try something that perhaps before you thought unattainable? I know that for this year, I want to write another book. But if I don't write down the steps to getting there, I'll just have a pipe dream instead of a reality.

What things do you want to do with your life this year? Dare to dream, ask God to reveal to you some things that He wants you to do, and then find something that there is no possible way you could do in your own power and believe God to help you with that. He is the God of impossibility after all, and more importantly, He wants to help you.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to begin to dream today of things that I have not considered a possibility before, and put my faith in God's ability and not my own. Because when I put faith in my own abilities, that's when I fail. Thank You Jesus for inspiring me through my pastor and friends to reach out for more in 2012. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!