Fantastic Friday #419 - Hurry

Hurry

⁷ I would flee far away
    and stay in the desert;
⁸ I would hurry to my place of shelter,
    far from the tempest and storm.”

⁹ Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words,
    for I see violence and strife in the city. Psalm 55:7-9

I saw a lot of people in a hurry this week.  People weaving in and out of traffic, almost causing accidents, and people that were running to get somewhere quickly.  I can be one of those people also, but I try really hard to be someone who slows down and drinks the coffee. Sorry, I don't care for smelling roses, although they are a very beautiful flower.  David hurried away to a place of shelter when he was trying to flee his enemies. I wonder sometimes if when we are hurrying if we think we are going to our own place of shelter. When in reality, we are only running away from the Lord's presence and His covering. Maybe if we spent less time hurrying and more time focusing on what God wants us to do, we would see less of what the enemy wants us to see.  Slow down and hurry into God's shelter and not our own shelter.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #418 - Suit

Suit

² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:2-5

 

Do you ever hear this?  Suit yourself.  If you have, someone has probably just offered you something and you have declined their offer.  Maybe you declined because you didn't like what they had to offer, you didn't have time for the offer, or you just plain didn't want to mess with their offer and had other things on your mind. When God's Word is shared, we really can't ignore his presence to suit our own desires. God has something to share with all of us, and we can't turn away from the truth to serve our selfish desires which others try to do regularly.  We have to sacrifice our time to suit God's needs and not our own.  Take a moment to tell yourself, today I am not going to suit myself but suit others through God.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #417 - Perform

Perform

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver....¹² This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³ Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 2 Corinthians 6-7, 12-13

When you perform certain actions throughout the day, do you feel like someone is watching you or judging you? Depending on what you are performing, someone might be keeping an eye on you.  Maybe this is because they know you are a follower of Christ and they just want to see how you act.  I think many of us today think so much about how we are going to perform in front of others and what these other people are going to think,  we end up over-performing or trying too hard to be good.  The thing we tend to forget about is our performance should really come from the outflow of our heart and not about pleasing others.  This is where many people have it wrong these days, they might be a cheerful giver, but they want to make sure everyone notices what they give, whether it be time or money.  Someone might also have a heart of giving, but then they want to make sure they are acknowledged for all the effort they put in.  We all want to be appreciated as human beings, but we need to get to the point where whatever we perform, we do it humbly and without asking for anything in return including acknowledgement from others.  Remember, there is one that is watching you closely. While you might be giving on the outside, He can see where you want to be acknowledged or rewarded.  Why not let God acknowledge your performance and not worry about what other people think, he knows your heart and can see through the performance. 

Have a great weekend

Fantastic Friday #416- Useless

Useless

¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 1 Corinthians 15:12-14
 
We just went through a period where we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior and with that celebration, potentially more have come to know Christ. Are you living your life as a changed person, and what does this look like?  Do you ever think of how many things are useless in this life without someone to operate them?  Think of a car, how useful is it unless you actually sit in the car and drive it.  A baseball bat is another good example, what good is it without having a baseball to hit.  Our faith in God is kind of like those things.  Do you spend time sharing with others your faith and what this faith has done to change you? If not, then it would seem that your faith in God is useless unless we are actively sharing it with others.  Our faith in God is very useful in our lives as long as we acknowledge that faith and let God lead our lives and share along the way. 

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #415 - Remove

Remove

³ As the heavens are high and the earth is deep,
    so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

⁴ Remove the dross from the silver,
    and a silversmith can produce a vessel;
⁵ remove wicked officials from the king’s presence,
    and his throne will be established through righteousness. Proverbs 25:3-5
 

Do you ever really sit and think about the sacrifice God made by allowing His Son to die on the cross for our sins?  When He allowed this as part of His plan, He was able to remove that separation we had from Him. Sin separated us from God and we all know that man is a sinful creature, but by the sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb, God removed that barrier that was keeping us from having a close relationship with Him.  Now, if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, does that mean that you won't sin?  No, but as is it says in Romans we don't keep on sinning.  Even though we have Christ in our hearts it can be a challenge for all of us, but I believe it is also important that we look at removing things from our life which can distance us from the life God wants us to live.  I spoke a couple of weeks ago to a group of kids about small things, like being mean, cheating a little bit, lying only occasionally, or just being disobedient.  But in reality these sins are sins, and you can't look at sin as a "little" thing or an "occasional" thing, we have to look at these things seriously and remove them from our life.  God removed the barrier through Christ's sacrifice and we need to remove the sin to have the life that God wants us to.  Just like you can remove dross from silver to produce a vessel, we can remove sin to walk in righteousness.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #414 - Reward

Reward

⁷ I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. ⁸ Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. ⁹ Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:7-9
 

This last week I was rewarded with something.  The reward was very nice for a long period learning and growing, and I very humbly accepted it.  Can you remember the last time you were rewarded?  Maybe it was not what you were expecting or maybe something came which you were totally expecting because you knew you deserved it, or at least that is what you think to yourself.  Rewards come in different packages and sizes in today's world, but how many of us stop and think of the actual rewards we are going to receive in Heaven if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  The reward that is coming to us when we accept Christ we definitely don't deserve, but certainly through Jesus' sacrifice God feels we deserves something grande.  However that reward doesn't come easy on this earth.  We aren't expected to accept Christ and then go about chasing the rewards of this world, but we are expected to share what the Father has done in our life to change the way we live and show others the difference Christ makes in our life.  Don't run ahead and think the rewards will come in this life, but wait patiently for the rewards that will come in the next life.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #413 - Separation

Separation

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. Romans 8:38-39

Separation is not just a description of two things being apart, there are really some emotions that go along with separation.  How many of us as children became separated from our parents in a store, park, or some other location when we were young?  How many of us as adults have been separated from our children or spouse for a period of time.  There is a deep emotion that I am sure all of us felt in these circumstances.  A loneliness, a sadness, maybe fear and even desperation might have set in during this experience for all involved.  Now, think of the time when you were reunited with that individual.  I bet the emotions you felt changed to relief, exuberance, joy, and a deep-felt happiness that you were reunited.  The enemy today wants you to experience a deep pain when you perceive you might have separation from the Lord, but you can't ever be separated from God's love.  When you might think God is not there during your biggest time of grief and struggle, you have to look at what scripture says regarding God's love.  Nothing can create that separation, not even the enemy.  We need to remember that while we might feel separated because of our sin, we are not separated from His love. He is always connected to us through Christ if we can accept Him as our Lord and Savior.

Have a great weekend.