by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” NASB   [Please read verses 1-16 for the greater context]

What is in my heart may not win friends and may not influence people the way I hope. I see something that is existent in the Church today and one few seem to be willing to address.  My devotionals are designed to be encouraging so for me to venture into something that would require the detail and length to adequately address, such as this, makes me cautious and concerns me. 

In the Body of Christ, we have the Church, the Ministry, and the Problem!  Of course, that demands explanation because on the surface it is meaningless and could lead to a terrible misunderstanding of what I am talking about.  The idea of ‘Covenant Community’ is a belief that consumes my heart, as a Christian and a preacher.  It burns in me like a fire that refuses to abate.  Therefore, regardless of how it may be received or understood, it is a message that I cannot avoid. 

Incorporated into this thought of ‘Covenant Community’ are some important facets of Truth and vital pieces of the spiritual puzzle.  I believe that I see with a significant amount of clarity where God wants to take us as the Body of Christ. I also have a sense of inadequacy in knowing exactly where to begin in addressing this reality. I sense a certain level of inadequacy in presenting what I see.  I am a very small fish in a very large pond and others with renown could present this with more receptivity, I am sure.  However, it is burned into my heart and the Holy Spirit won’t let me walk away, so we dive in.  I hope and pray this will be beneficial and ultimately a blessing to you.

I know what it is to have enormous physical and emotional pain.  I know what it is to feel that you have been abandoned by God and man.  I may not know the pain you feel or have felt, but I know what I feel and have felt.  In some measure, what I am going to address has a prophetic tone and anytime there is a message that has that tone there is great danger of it being misunderstood or misapplied.  It most assuredly opens the door to harsh criticism of those who disagree or disbelieve the message.  But, before you render a judgment, I ask that you hear the whole matter and then decide.

All of us need to engage in reevaluation and reexamination of our hearts and our positions from time to time.  That is not an unusual condition for me to find myself.  In days gone by, the Lord has challenged me to reevaluate everything in my life.  He has challenged me in my views of ministry, life, my dreams and purposes, everything.  That can be and, at times, was painful because of the honesty He required.

Covenant Community – – What is it?  Why do we need it?  How do we attain it?  All questions that are valid and hopefully in some measure I will answer satisfactorily.  I believe that it is the desire of God for the Church today to become His Covenant Community in every local expression.  He wants us to become a Covenant Family.

Let me make this declaration:  “Unless the local expression of the Church becomes a Covenant Family it can never become a Covenant Community and will never be fully assimilated into the Body of Christ in a universal sense.”  What I mean is that it will never become the Church Triumphant, enforcing the Victory of Calvary in this world until it becomes a Covenant Family and a Covenant Community. 

Lest anyone think I am saying that the Church of Jesus will fail, IT WILL NOT!  We may fail individually and in the local community, but the Church Universal will not fail.  The Church Jesus is building will pull down strongholds and defeat the authorities and powers of darkness.  What I am saying is, we may have to make some changes in our attitudes, understanding, and actions to become a viable part of that Church Triumphant.  I hope we all want that desperately. Today’s pandemic is opening the door for that to become a reality in a larger measure than most would have thought or believe.

I am going to pause there, knowing that I have not adequately defined my objective and may have left you wondering where I am going with this.  However, if you will join me in the next devotional, we will consider some major changes that need to occur in many hearts and local congregations.

God bless you as you enjoy this wonderful day in Him!

Exodus 3:13-14 – “Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” NASB

Some time back, I heard in my spirit the Lord saying, “Just Tell Them Who I Am!”  I heard it over and over again, day after day for weeks and when something like that will not lessen in its tug at my heart, I know it is something that I need to pay careful attention to.  As I prayed and meditated on God, the things of God, and the Purposes of God I realized that this was the cry of the Father that His children would come to a greater awareness of “Who He Is” and “Know Him.”

As I prayed, I sensed in my spirit the Lord saying, “When My people know me, fear will be gone.  They will be able to wait on Me, trusting My provision, love, and timing.  They will be able to take dominion, establish My Covenant, set the captives free, and walk victoriously in this life!  So, Tell Them Who I Am!”  That was an incredibly humbling experience and the pressure of that directive was staggering.  How could I do that in the way I felt God wanted and deserved?  I knew the deficiency in my own ability and my sense of weakness and incapability soared.  I understood how Moses must have felt as he stood at the burning bush. 

God’s motivation is always out of a heart of love.  His motivation and purpose are always demonstrated in His Covenant.  His Love ‘Hesed’ (Hebrew) and ‘Agape’ (Greek) is His heart and binds Him to His Covenant opening the door for us to become one with Him.  It is through God’s Love and His Covenant that He totally commits Himself to us. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Exodus, we discover several important realities about God and in His dealings with Moses that help us to “know” Him and relate to Him.

I want to begin considering some of those realities and will allow the Bible to do its own commentary.  I pray this will be an inspiration and beneficial for you and inspire you to Know Him beyond anything you have ever experienced and move deeper into Him and His Purposes.

HE IS – – In verse 6 we realize that He is not ‘a’ god but THE GOD of all creation. In Abraham, we see His Covenant, in Isaac we see His Provision and in Jacob we see the Transformation that occurs.  He is!  He is whatever the need is!  He is eternal, past, present, and future.  I AM is Who He is!

HE SEES – – In verse 7 we discover that He sees ALL.  “for I have surely seen…”  The Bible tells us that the eyes of God run to and fro through the whole earth looking for opportunities to show Himself strong on behalf of His people. (2 Chronicles 16:9).  In Psalms 34:15 – “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous.”  Psalms 33:18 – “The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him.”  Job 36:7 – “He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous.”  Psalm 139:12 – Darkness and light do not prevent Him from seeing.  Nothing escapes His notice.  He is the Seeing God!

HE HEARS – – In verse 7 we discover that He hears, “and have given heed to their cry…I am aware of their suffering.”  He is not an inanimate and unconcerned being, He hears, He sees, and He knows.  David said in Psalms 34:4 – “I sought the Lord and He heard me.”  In 34:15 – “His eyes are open to their cry.”  Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto Me and I will answer.”  John 14:3-14 – In that word of comfort from our Lord He reminds us that He Hears our prayers.  In 1 John 5:14-15 – “And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”  That is powerful! 

God IS and never changes. God SEES and misses nothing.  God HEARS and is aware of everything.  I have just begun to scratch the surface of Who He is but will pause here and pick up more realities and declarations of Who He is in the next devotional.  God bless you as you make it your objective to discover Him more fully and Know Him completely. 

Have a Great Day!

1 Corinthians 8:1b – “…Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”  NIV

Romans 12:5 – “so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  NASB

It is incredibly clear in studying the Scriptures that “Disunity” is one of the most disruptive things that the New Testament Church faces.  It is also, clear that “Unity” is high on the list of the most needed and most powerful force the Church can have.  “Unity” can only be realized through the work of the Holy Spirit in the manifestation of “Agape Love.”

I believe it would be impossible to casually read the New Testament without realizing that God has a unique plan for every believer.  God desires that every believer become a functioning member of the church.  I believe that is revealed by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians.  He tells us in Ephesians 4:15-16 that as Christians we are to “Speak the truth in love.”  As we do, we will “in all things grow up into Him who is the head, that is Christ.  From Him, the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, and grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Repeatedly, the writers of the New Testament exhorted believers to engage in specific activities that would enable the Body of Christ to function effectively and grow spiritually.  Frequently they used a unique word to describe this mutual and reciprocal process, it was “Allelon” or one another.  It is used 58 times in the New Testament and Paul used in 40 times.

Some of these concepts are repeated from letter to letter, but when all the “one another” exhortations are studied carefully and grouped together according to specific meaning, they can be reproduced in twelve significant actions that Christians are to take toward “one another.”

The greatest of these is LOVE.  This Agape Love is the ‘more excellent way’ of 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 13:13. The exhortation to “Love one another” appears more frequently than all the rest.  Of the 48 references to what we are to do for “one another”, as believers, 11 times we are told to “Love one another.”  Then, if we add the commands of our LORD to “Love one another” the list grows to 16 times.  That reveals the importance and significance of us Loving one another.

It goes without saying that “Love” is the most important issue for the believer in the New Testament.  To love fellow believers is a basic injunction of the New Testament and is evidence of a Spirit-filled Life and Salvation.  In Colossians 3:14 we read, “And over all these virtues put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”  Then in 1 Peter 4:8, we discover, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

When we consider the directives of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples it comes as no surprise that the New Testament would place such an emphasis on Love.  In John 14:34-35, He declared, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must Love on Another.  All men will know that you are My disciples if you Love on Another.”  How’s that for emphasis?

The truth is that all the actions that we are enjoined to take toward “one another” are wrapped up in the singular directive of “Love in Action.”  The apostle Paul sensed that truth as he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Philippians 1:9-11 saying, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in the knowledge and depth of insight, so that you are able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Chris, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

We could solve most of the problems of the church and the world if we received and demonstrated God’s, Agape Love!  I believe that would produce one of the greatest revivals and awakenings the Church has ever seen.  We will address this again in the next devotional but until then may the rich and bountiful blessings of our Lord be upon you.

Have a great day!

2 Timothy 2:26 – “and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” NASB

We begin today’s discussion with the question we ended the last devotional with, “How can the devil take anyone captive, especially a Christian against his will?”  We noted that in 2 Timothy 2:26 it is made clear that is a possibility but how?

If you look closely you will see the connection between strife, disharmony and the devil’s ability to take people captive.  If you will take note, you will also see that the absence of strife is connected to the ability to remain free from the devil’s bondage.  Sadly, too often, people in Church excuse their disharmony and strive with others insisting that there was no real harm done only disagreement.  However, we find here that the devil gains a foothold and is enabled to come in and operate at his will and against ours.  He affects us and those we are in disharmony with and thereby the church and the world.  It is no wonder that we are instructed to STOP THE STRIFE!

This is powerfully amplified in James 3:14-16 – “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” 

In this passage we discover that if we have bitter envying and strife, we have confusion and every evil work.  A reality that cannot be overlooked is that ‘strife’ opens the door to ‘confusion’ and every evil work.  Strife allows the devil to come in where he has no authority and operate freely.  It is essentially his welcome mat.  It gives him an opportunity and he is always opportunistic.  Therefore, the key is to STOP STIFE and STOP THE DEVIL!

In James Chapters 3-5 we have detailed instructions and revelations on how to keep strife at a minimum or eradicate it completely.  Two pertinent facts leap off the page for me:  It is always a matter of the heart and it is always a matter of our will.

James 3 deals with the Tongue.  The description of the tongue being an ignition switch for fires of all kinds is apropos and germane.  The tongue can either bless or curse, bring peace or discord.  The choice of how we use it is up to us.  We can through the work of the Holy Spirit TAME THE TONGUE!  James 4 informs us how and why Strife comes and issues the exhortation to ‘submit’ to God and ‘resist’ the devil.  He adds, that we are not to speak evil one to another.

What is Strife?  I ask that you take a brief journey through Proverbs for a clear understanding of what it is, how it comes, and how to prevent it.

Proverbs 15:18 – “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger pacifies contention.”

Proverbs 16:28 – “A perverse man spreads strife, and a slanderer separates intimate friends.” 

Proverbs 17:1 – “Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife.” 

Proverbs 20:3 – “Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.” 

Proverbs 22:10 – “Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out, Even strife and dishonor will cease.” 

Proverbs 26:17, 20-21 – “Like one who takes a dog by the ears is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him… 20 For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down. 21 Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.”

Proverbs 28:25 – “An arrogant man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.”

Proverbs 29:22 – “An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.” 

Proverbs 30:33 – “For the churning of milk produces butter, and pressing the nose brings forth blood; so, the churning of anger produces strife.”

If you will read Philippians 2:1-5 you will discover a powerful way to keep strife at bay. My point is that we have the choice of whether we allow strife to enter and abide.  Therefore, we have the choice of whether we become captives of the devil. 

Let me conclude in this manner, if the presence of strife, envying and self-seeking produce confusion and every evil work then the converse is also true.  If we eliminate those things from our midst and lives, we bring harmony, love, peace, and a God-centered environment and the devil loses his base of operation.  No wonder Paul contended in Romans 13:13-14 that we are to make no provisions for the flesh.

We need to make a conscious decision to resist strife, envy, and disharmony.  If it comes, we must immediately repent and stop it on the spot.  We are God’s instruments and we have His commission, His love, and His Spirit.  We can Stop the Devil, so Let’s Do It!

God bless you as you enjoy this day!