Romans 8:1-2 – “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.“ NASU

As we read Romans Chapter 7 we see a conflict between the flesh and the spirit and if we would allow the devil to do so he would entrap us into a mindset that says, “Oh well, we are only human so sin we must.”  But when we begin at the first verse of Chapter 8 we have the apostle bringing us face to face with the wonderful truth of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, grace, and power to enable us to LIVE FREE in Jesus!

Will you stumble and commit acts of sin?  Most likely, most do but that does not mean you have to adopt a lifestyle of sin or even make a place for sin to exist through justifying your falling short from time to time.  No, the apostle says, “Therefore there is NOW no condemnation… When?  NOW!  In the present we have been set free by the Blood of Jesus and the law of the Spirit of life in Him frees us from the law of sin and death!  Can I hear someone shout Hallelujah?  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  It is Christ IN US that is the hope of glory.  The life that we NOW LIVE in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son or faith in the Son of God.  Our liberty is present tense not just future tense!  NOW NO CONDEMNATION!

Paul said in Philippians 3 that he did not consider himself as one who had arrived at spiritual perfection but that did not prevent him from pressing toward that goal.  He refused to allow the past or even the present, prevent him from moving forward in his pursuit of Christ, the prize of the high calling of God.  He sought spiritual maturity and a life that demonstrated power over sin and the devil.  He considered his body the temple of the Lord and labored to bring his body and thoughts into subjection to the Lordship of Jesus.  He lived NOW with NO CONDEMNATION! 

Stop saying, “I’m only human” as a justification and make it your pursuit to ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness’ and allow the Holy Spirit to manifest Jesus through you.  If you fall short, if you sin then turn to our advocate Jesus Christ the Righteous and He will pardon.  You can live victorious NOW!  You can walk in the fullness of God in Christ NOW!  You can live the abundant life NOW!

So as you approach this day go in the confidence that God is going to see you through and go before you making the crooked places straight!  BLESSINGS!

2 Timothy 2:3-4 – “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”  NKJV

 My experience in life and ministry has taught me that ENDURANCE is a grossly misunderstood topic but one that needs to be fully comprehended by the Body of Christ if we are to become all God has designed and desired of us.  When you face a crisis, are on the front lines in a war zone and stressed out not knowing if you can survive another minute much less another day you have just become a candidate for ENDURANCE.  Once in this race (Christianity) you must finish the course and once in this fight (Christianity) you must continue.  You cannot quit for to quit is to lose all.

There is a crisis in the Body of Christ with regard to our ‘wounded warriors’ of faith and sadly often they are wounded by other members of the Body.  Some are filled with the infection of bitterness, walking under the dominion of rejection and abandonment and filled with fear to the point they cannot trust God or man.  They feel betrayed, let down, failed, disappointed, and are DEEPLY WOUNDED and as a result have become hard, skeptical, sarcastic and cynical.

If you were to accidentally run your arm through a plate glass window it would, in all likelihood, hurt.  If you saw that it was cut badly you’d rush to the emergency room for help, right?  They would treat you cleaning out the wound, giving you medication to help keep down infection and pain and put in stitches to close the wound.  Just because they have done that and released you does not mean you are ready to use that arm again immediately.  However, when someone is wounded in a relationship or some situation in life they need an emergency room to treat them they do not need THIRTY YEARS recovery time.  What am I saying?  Stop pandering to the problem, holding grudges, hurts, and resentments.  Release it to the Lord so healing can begin.  It is quite likely you will be hurt again but this is not a sprint it is a marathon and you must ENDURE.

ENDURE HARDNESS as a good soldier.  We have little comprehension of this in most of our western world.  Hardness for many would be, driving an older car not a new one, having the same carpet 5-6 years, not getting new wardrobes annually and having to mow our own lawns.  Some would expand that to being not enough money to pay the bills, not enough food, personal attacks, family divisions and delays in God’s promises.  Those may be difficult but are not hardness as in the life of a soldier.

We do not like ‘hardness’ and frankly do not care much for those who preach about it.  I do not like hardness or difficulty.  I like blessing!  The early church were, a people more committed to the cause of Christ than the opposition was to their cause.  They KNEW their mission and KING and defied ten Roman emperors who had them slaughtered and outlasted them all.  This thing we are in is WAR, spiritual war!

 Hardness – (sun-kako-pa-theo):  Three different words are compounded to form this word.  (Sun Kakos Pathos).  There are three ideas I want you to see.  SUN is connection or partnership it is a connection to someone or something as in 1 Corinthians 6:1 where we learn we are ‘workers together with Him.’  KAKOS conveys the idea of something wicked or evil and if we only had the first two words it would seem that we were in partnership with evil but we have PATHOS and this normally describes suffering but has more to do with mental suffering than physical so Paul is telling Timothy that he must become disciplined and tough mentally.

Just because you suffer does not mean you are spiritual so do not look for ways to suffer.  Hebrews 12:11 tells us that chastening is not joyous in the present but the fruit of it is powerful.  The soldier was disciplined, committed, trained and skillful in the use of his weapons.

Matthew 24:13 – “…he who endures to the end, the same shall be saved…”

We have a commission and a promise and need to become committed to run the race that is set before us unwilling to quit.  His promise is that He is with us, will not forsake us and will be with us to the end.

            God bless you as you go through your day!

Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’  NASU

In this life all of us are faced with ‘limitations’ and sometimes they are incredibly trying.  The strides of science, medicine and technology in the past few decades, is nothing short of phenomenal but limited.  Children of today observe things with such a passive nonchalance that would have sent our forefathers into hiding.

Think about it!  We have pierced the invisible wall of outer space, landed on the moon, sent machines to faraway places and  shrunk the world so that any destination is hours away.  We have created gadgets that almost rule our lives and the computer has revolutionized how many operate, communicate, and live.  The future is even more promising as technology is outdated by the time it is marketed and knowledge is expanding exponentially at an almost alarming rate but LIMITED!

Someone said, “We have become whales in machinery and technology and minnows in morality” and that often appears to be the truth.  We are ‘better off’ but not always ‘better’.  We seem to have an unlimited ability to communicate and often nothing to say.  In a reals sense we are observing the ‘failure’ of ‘success.”

LIMITED is a term that aptly describes mankind.  Scientist tell us that man uses only a minuscule portion of his brain and when we consider what he has accomplished using such a small portion, what are the possibilities?  He is still LIMITED.  There is one activity that man has been invited to that moves beyond the limitations of our humanness and into the Infiniteness of God’s Eternalness.   God has given man something that is LIMITLESS.

PRAYER is without limitation.  Time and space have no effect on it.  Prayer touches three worlds (heaven, earth, hell) simultaneously and instantaneously.  It influences and touches as no other activity and concerns hell more than most anything we can do as humans.  It can be launched in an instant and hit its target at the speed of thought and is never confined to the laws of time or space.  IT IS LIMITLESS!

The only question is why we do not practice it more!  God extended to us the ‘invitation’ to pray.  It is a simple invitation where He says, “Call to Me…”  Everyone can do it.  There is no special education or training required to participate.  Even those who cannot speak can pray for the directive is YOU call.  It is personal as well as corporate.  It is audacious in that the King of Kings has instructed us to CALL upon Him.  Imagine that!  It is immense as there are no conditions or limitations placed on it.  We can pray about anything!  It is dynamic for He says, “And I will answer you…”  Can you fathom that God is listening?  He said YOU call and I WILL answer you.  That is a promise of the highest order He not only said He would ANSWER but that He would SHOW us things we did not know.  So it is not only a time of petition but instruction!  The magnitude of that is mind-boggling!

Prayer is an invitation to experience the BOUNDLESSNESS and LIMITLESSNESS of God.  If that does not cock your pistol your hammer is broken.  Prayer breaks across the borders of time and stands firmly in eternity.  Prayers have outlasted nations and dynasties and no king, president or potentate can nullify prayer.  They may make it illegal to pray but they cannot cancel the efficacy of prayer!

Someone said:  If Grace is the river, Prayer is the riverbed through which it flows.  If Grace is the water of life, Prayer is the pipeline through which the water comes.  If Grace is the content, Prayer is the container from which it is poured.   The LIVING GOD of all Creation has invited you and me to PRAY!       He has invited us to engage in the LIMITELESSNESS of Him!

Shall we pray?   God be with you as you go through this day!

EXODUS…

In considering the Wilderness Miracle and accomplishing the Purposes of God we must KNOW what that purpose is, believe that purpose, adopt it as our own and have it literally become the PURPOSE of our lives.  In a very real way it becomes who and why I am.

In Exodus 35-26 we discover a significant miracle with the account of the building of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and I’d like for you to consider at least three things regarding this:

• The Greatness of the Miracle.
• The Fact of the Miracle.
• The Principle It Conveys.

             First, remember where they came from – Egypt which most would identify as a type of the flesh or the world.  It very definitely expresses a worldview or state of mind and a thought process.  Next, they had been oppressed poor slaves and now they were wealthy through having spoiled the Egyptians but they still had the worldview of Egypt in them.  Additionally, all their needs were being met (shoes, clothes, food) through the miraculous hand of God so the wilderness was not costing them anything.  Then, they had the Dream of a Promised Land they would possess but with the Egyptian mentality.  None of this suggested a mentality or willingness to trend toward lavish giving.

It is only as they began to receive the revelation of who God really was, understand their purpose, destiny and relationship to their possessions are they to be free to respond to the request that is being made to build the Tabernacle.  One of the greatest fears a person who has been poor but become wealthy or comfortable is becoming poor again.  They Egyptian mentality had to be removed for them to be free.  As they tasted God’s provisions they learned to trust more freely.  As they came to know God they could view the Tabernacle as a representation of the Manifest Presence of God in their midst.

           This miracle conveys a truth that touches every aspect of our lives.  God is above all.  All we have and are is for the establishing of His purpose and as we, in faith, obey HE BECOMES ALL WE NEED!  In Him there is total supply and victory.  In Him they learned the keys to living in Covenant.  Therefore I ask, “Is the Bible true or not?”  Jesus said, “Ask anything in My Name and I will do it.”  God had promised and they learned to believe that promise.  Too often we are just trying to ‘get through’ rather than living victoriously.

They and we need to learn the Law of Sowing and Reaping.  In this we learn that God is our source not man.  There is no harvest without planting or sowing and the reaping is in kind or “We reap what we sow”.  If you plant beans you do not harvest corn.  We reap what we so, more than we sow and later than we sow but WE REAP.

The miracle involved money but it was far more than money.  They were giving themselves and the ultimate test of how much of you God has is reflected in your giving.  In this situation we find:  The NEED was God caused.  The GIVING POTENTIAL was God arranged.  The OFFERING was God directed and the GIVING was God inspired.

Exodus 36:5-7 – “…they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the LORD commanded us to do.”  6 So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” And the people were restrained from bringing, 7 for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done — indeed too much.”  NKJV

The result was God GLORIFYING!  They had to be restrained from giving for they were giving too much!  Do you see what I’m saying?  They learned to trust God and their giving was an act of worship.  Luke 6:38 declares, “Give and IT shall be given unto you….” 

The Miracle was God had them in totality and in that state could begin the process of bringing them to the Place of Promise.  Preparation always precedes blessing!   May God be with you as you go through your day!

EXODUS 18

My friend from San Antonio, Dennis Davis used to say, “When leaders lead people follow” and that is so powerfully true it deserves repeating regularly and expanded upon in all congregations.  Let’s consider one of the most prolific leaders in the Bible and see if we can glean some beneficial insights into the ministry and gift of leadership.

I believe that Moses, as most who are called to leadership in the Body of Christ, had a heart for the people.  He had the heart of a pastor/shepherd and his congregation had needs so Moses had to learn to balance in his role leading and delegating. He had to come to an understanding as to the extent of his gift and call, recognizing gift(s) in others and release them to function.  He had to learn to move from being a ‘one man show’ to a ‘facilitator of ministries’.

Exodus 18:13-18 – – Please read.

Moses, I believe, had a very good perspective of his ministry.  He understood that the people came to him.  I could accept Moses declaring:  I hear from God. The people have needs and come to me because I hear from God and I can speak to their needs.  That is wonderful, however there is a problem – – The people are lined up for miles waiting to speak to Moses but Moses hears from God so they have to get to Moses, right?

Exodus 18:16-17 – – Please read.

It is one thing to respond to the Holy Spirit but it is quite another to have your father-in-law, the priest of Midian who is not an Abrahamic Covenant person tell you what you are doing and how to correct the problem.  Picture in your mind the scene where this man is coming to the man who talks to God face to face and says, “Moses you are dumb!”

Exodus 18:18 – – Please read.

 Exodus 18:19-27 – – Please read.

After this counsel, Moses began the process of establishing a new structure in recognition that the people and problems were too numerous for one man.  Moses had become the ‘bottleneck’.  He is wearing away.  The people are becoming weary.  He loves his people so he changes.  Unless and until one learns to ‘delegate’ they will never fully release their gift and maximize their potential in leadership.  You are not capable of doing it all by yourself nor did God ever intend you to.

Notice in Exodus 18:21 – “You shall provide out of the people ABLE MEN.”  Simple right!  He has over 600,000 men to choose from so he has to have a screening and training process to make this work.  It could not be appearance or popularity it had to be as directed by the Spirit of God.  He had to develop a plan to TRAIN THEM and that is sorely missing in most churches today.  He began the process of selecting those who would become Captains of 10, 50, 100, and 1000 training them and allowing them to function ministering to the needs of the people and if a problem was larger than their gift or sphere of authority they brought it to Moses.  If we are going to have leaders who lead we must have people who will become intercessors, hearts that will receive instruction and people who will accept responsibility.

The bottom line is we need men/women of God who will ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness’ and make Him first above all else.  Leaders you must not only delegate but you must release those to whom you have delegated to function.  There must be responsibility, authority and accountability. 

            May God be with you as you go through your day!

Proverbs 23:17-18 – “Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day; 18 For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off.”  NKJV

Have you ever looked at someone who appeared to be living a vile lifestyle and yet seemed to get all the breaks?  Let’s take that a step further by asking have you envied them or what they had?  The first question is not problematic but the addendum and the writer of Proverbs identifies wrong thought and right thought with a promise attached.

I used to hear the phrase “Payday Someday” used a lot as people explained that the wicked would one day stand before God.  I have heard it adapted to the mentality of “I don’t get mad, I get even” as descriptive that the object of that comment would pay.  We like to say, “What goes around comes around” as an explanation that all balances out in life.  Well, actually it doesn’t and the wicked may never, in this life, suffer visibly for the condition of their hearts and you may never get the breaks you think they have gotten but there is a cause for rejoicing that I want to point you to.

Instead of focusing on those living sinful lifestyles regardless of how prosperous they may appear become ZEALOUS for the ‘fear of the Lord’ all day, every day, and ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.’  The writer gives us a reason that should stir our hearts, “for there is a hereafter and your hope will not be cut off.”   WOW!  So it is not what a man possesses materially that matters it is what is in his heart!  I believe we find that in the words of Jesus in the gospels do we not?

So if I live my life with eternity in view and anchor my hopes in God then I can live as Paul said, ‘Content whatever my state may be’ knowing that I am IN CHRIST and He is my HOPE!   What would we exchange for our souls?  What is more valuable than our eternal relationship with God?  Yes some seem to get all the breaks but we have HIM and a treasure where moth cannot eat away, decay cannot erode, or thieves break in and steal.  When someone speaks out of envy at what another has I always tell them, “NEVER look at the outward look inward and upward your big break came in Jesus and nothing in this world can compare.”

So as you go through this day go knowing that what you have in Christ is worth more than all the treasures of this world.  You got the best break when Jesus forgave you of your sin!  May God be with you and bless you richly today!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 – “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.   15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”  NKJV

Recently I was reflecting on some people in my life who have gone on before and completed their journey.  I was missing them and remembering some of the precious moments we had together and the lasting impact that their words, deeds and lives had on me.  As I joyed in those memories for a brief moment an overwhelming sadness began to creep in and the Holy Spirit took me to this passage to read again and the thought of my heart was, “Lord, Its Almost Shouting Time Isn’t It?”

Those who have preceded us have completed their journey and enjoying the indescribable joys of eternity but we remain on this terrestrial ball waiting our change.  Jesus said He would COME AGAIN and He keeps His word.  My heart leaps within me as I contemplate what it will mean for that SHOUT to ring out and the trumpet to sound as the graves burst open and the dead rise to meet Him.  What a gathering that will be when My Jesus I shall see and the heavens open as we are caught up together with them meeting Him.

I remember driving home after a prayer meeting not long after I had received Christ as my Savior and there was such an awesome display of the moon that I stopped my car and anticipated hearing that SHOUT at that moment.  I have had times through the years when I thought TODAY IS THE DAY that I will hear that shout.  Obviously I have not heard it yet but that does not mean it is not coming – IT IS! 

As I sit today thinking about those who have gone before I miss them deeply but am not sorrowing as the world for I know that this thing we call death is only a transition from the temporal to the eternal.  It is moving beyond the veil and into the presence of the literal presence of the Lord.  Yes here in December 2014 I feel that it is JUST ABOUT SHOUTING TIME and I am encouraged in the Lord.  I believe there is coming a harvest like we have never seen while there will be chaos beyond our wildest thoughts.  I have seen a vision of some of what is coming and while I do not know when I know it will be.

So as you make preparations for the day; allow the Holy Spirit to encourage your heart for it is ALMOST SHOUTING TIME!    May God be with you in a special way as you go through this day!