Have you considered this thought…The moment that you accept Jesus as your Savior, your eternal life begins. This is the message our pastor preached on Sunday.I’ve been pondering this thought.We are to forget what is behind us and move forward toward our ultimate goal…which is eternity with our Lord.Paul speaks of this in Philippians. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”Philippians 3:12-15
This morning I awoke “thinking differently”.ALWAYS after Christmas, I start stressing about money, bills, and losing weight. I get a little depressed because Christmas is over so soon.But VERY quickly, God made this clear to me….YOU ARE LIVING YOUR ETERNITY NOW!None of that really matters.If you view each moment as part of your eternal life, will you stress about money?There is no money in Heaven!Will you be worried about being overweight or becoming sick or having a disease?There is no sickness in Heaven!Will you become depressed or sad?There are no tears in Heaven!Our goal is to keep our eyes on the prize and don’t sweat the other stuff!If I focus on Him, He will take care of the rest so that I can run this race and do His will.
Every time Satan attacks us with things that are of this world, we need to remember we are already living our eternity.We need to take care of business and be as healthy as possible so that we can be our best as we do God’s work.We will not reach perfection while on this earth, but we are to strive to be more like Christ each and every day. If we do this, everything else will fall into place.
Yeshua is the original Aramaic proper name for Jesus. In Hebrew Yeshua means “Salvation” or “He saves”.In Matthew 1:21, the angel told Joseph “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."There are over 200 names and titles for Jesus found in the Bible…but my favorites are Jesus and Immanual which means “God with us”. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah I am reminded of a beautiful song that was in our Christmas program at church last year…He Came Down.Here are some of the lyrics “He came down, He came down, the holy light of Heaven, wrapped in swaddling clothes. He came down, He came down, for God so loved the world, that he wanted us to know, So HE came down.”Jesus was God in the flesh…who came to this earth to be with us and to save us.He knew what He would have to endure, but He came anyway.That is how much He loves us.As we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, may we not forget the reason he was born.He had a divine purpose…to give His life in exchange for ours. As you open your gifts this Christmas, think about the ultimate gift that was given to you that Christmas so long ago.Jesus, our Savior, God with us.
The song titled, “Mary Did You Know?” was
written by Mark Lawry in 1984.It is one
of my favorite Christmas songs.
“Mary
did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.
Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.
The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of The Lamb.
Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the Great I Am.”
Luke chapters 1 and 2 give the account of
Mary’s pregnancy and Jesus’ birth and childhood.I have wondered many times, just like Mark
Lawry’s song above, if Mary really understood everything that was happening.The angel Gabriel had spoken to her, she had
witnessed the miracle pregnancy of her relative Elizabeth, and she had met shepherds who had been visited by
angels that told them about her baby…can you imagine what that would have been
like? To know that the baby you had carried in your womb and given birth
to would be the Savior of the entire world?
When Gabriel first told Mary, she did not
argue or have doubts. She was afraid, but her only question was, “How is
this going to happen, I am a virgin?” Then the angel explained that the
Holy Spirit would be the father. Her response was, "I am the Lord's
servant, may it be to me as you have said." How hard must it have
been for her to just be obedient and not ask a million questions!
When the shepherds came to the stable to
find Jesus, it must have amazed her that they even knew He was there.
Luke writes, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her
heart.” She had so much to ponder!
I love singing the song “Mary Did You
Know.” I think about what Mary was imagining as she held the Son of God
in her arms, as she kissed His tiny face. Everything that had been told
to her by the angel Gabriel had come to pass. But now what? How was
she going to raise this baby to be the Savior of the world? (We do good
to just get our kids through High School!) But I imagine there was no
worry there…just amazing faith.
How awesome it must have been to watch her
baby boy grow up to be a man. He healed the sick, He taught about God, He
performed miracles and then He gave His life. As she watched her cherished
son hanging there on that tree, I imagine that her amazing faith is what got
her through it.She had to have known that
he would rise again on the third day. I’m sure she had to go back in her
mind to that first visit from the angel Gabriel and remember all of the things
that had happened since that day and draw her strength from that.
When we start to worry, face problems or
lose a cherished loved one…we need to go back to that first visit from Gabriel and
ponder all of the promises Jesus fulfilled. “For no word from God will ever fail.”Luke 1:37 We need to hide God’s word in our
hearts and keep our eyes on Jesus, because there are promises yet to be
fulfilled. Before He left this world, He said “And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also.” John 14:3
Be comforted by these words this Christmas
season.
Today is my daughter’s birthday.It is so hard for me to believe that she is already 14.It seems like yesterday that she was born.She is so independent now, a far cry from when she was little.For the first 10 years of her life, she was so attached to me she had trouble even going to school!She was a Mama’s girl!I used to tell people “she is sucking the life out of me!”If I tried to focus on anything except her, she would take my face and turn it to her and MAKE me look at her.She had to be the center of my world! One of the reasons we were so attached is because when she was about 2, I decided that I needed to stay home with her. Even when I started back to work part time, I took her with me.She would be right up in the middle of the desk playing with the paperclips and calculator as I worked.In third grade, she was even diagnosed with Separation Anxiety because she wouldn’t leave my side.I prayed then that God would make her more independent, and boy did he answer that prayer!Now she doesn’t even want to be seen with me and she could stay with her friends for days and not even miss me!Now I’m the one with Separation Anxiety!She only has time for me if she wants something.
Isn’t this how we are with the Lord?At first, when we were newly saved, just babies in Christ, we wanted to spend every minute with Him. We were attached to His side, always talking to Him and seeking His face.But as time goes on, we become more independent of Him, believing that we can handle things on our on.We stay away from Him for days and only talk to Him when we want something.Until I became a mother, I never really understood how He feels, but I can sure relate now.My daughter owes me for her very life…but I never look at it that way.On the Cosby show Bill Cosby used to say “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out!”We chose to bring our children into this world because we wanted to love them and take care of them.We wanted their companionship and relationship.It is the same way with our Father, He chose us.He put us here for that relationship with Him (and He can definitely take us out)! I owe Jesus my life, but all he truly wants is to have a relationship with me.He wants to sit and talk and share things with me.With my daughter, I cherish those moments when she wants to sit and talk with me.They are very rare and precious.Now, it is me that wants to take her face and turn it to me to make her listen and focus on what I’m saying.That is what Jesus is doing, too.He really wishes He could take our face and turn it to Him.He is always there, waiting for us to just talk to Him and spend time in His word.How sad it makes us when our children can’t even acknowledge our existence until they want something or they are in trouble…..think about how Jesus feels.How much more should I be that loving and thankful daughter towards Him like I want my daughter to be towards me!So today I ask you to turn to Him and spend time with Him…stop giving Jesus Separation Anxiety!!
Psalm 27:8 NLT“My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming."
How do you know that YOU KNOW?Security in our salvation….it is a much debated belief.As a Baptist, but an open minded person, I have studied the security of the believer many times…especially when I was 28 and still feeling unsure of my salvation and wondering how to have peace within.I had walked the aisle at age 8 and been baptized, but continued to struggle with doubt for 20 years. As I searched for answers, I realized that I never truly had the Holy Spirit living within me. I want to speak to all of those that are struggling like I was.If you find yourself living a life of sin, and you are not being convicted from within, you may need to go back and examine your salvation experience.If you have TRULY surrendered and have given your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit living within you will not let you continue to live a sinful life.Ephesians 1:13–14 ”And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. “If you are saved, you are God’s possession, and it’s not like Wal-Mart….he doesn’t have a return policy.Salvation is not something you have earned, we did nothing to earn salvation (salvation is a free gift of God’s grace), so how can we ever lose salvation? Conditional security in salvation is acceptable only to those who also believe that they somehow contributed to their salvation in the first place. This is the opposite of what the bible teaches in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast,” which clearly states that we contribute absolutely nothing to our salvation; even the faith necessary to receive the gift of grace, is itself a gift of God.
The most popular objections to the belief that a Christian cannot lose salvation are 1) What about those who are Christians and continually live an immoral lifestyle? 2) What about those who are Christians but later reject the faith and deny Christ? The problem with these two objections is the phrase “who are Christians.” The Bible declares that a true Christian will not live a continually immoral lifestyle. The Bible declares that anyone who departs the faith is demonstrating that he never truly was a Christian. 1John “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” Therefore, neither objection is valid. True Christians do not continually live immoral lifestyles, nor do they reject the faith and deny Christ. Such actions are proof that they were never redeemed.
Here are two more scriptures to hold on to:Romans 8:38–39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.
John 10:28–29 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit was deposited into you, and you have security that NOTHING can take that away from you. We all will continue to have sin in our lives- because we are still human.But the Spirit within us will whisper to us that we need to confess and turn away from that sin.He will search our hearts and minds and we will not rest until we are right with God.And as we grow closer to the Lord each day,we will find it harder and harder to do anything that would not please God.
Hopefully, everyone that reads this today is blessed with friends.A friend is someone you are fond of or attached to, someone that you have bonded with and shared things with.We have friends that we see every day and some that we never see but we know they are there for us if we ever need them.I can’t imagine my life without my friends. Unfortunately, sometimes we may have disagreements or misunderstandings with our friends.These disagreements can sometimes be about religious beliefs or morality issues.Sometimes they are because we believe things that are not true or have misconceptions about things. The story of Job shows his relationship with three of his friends.They came to Job seeming to want to help him in his time of need and comfort him.But when they attacked him instead comforting him, he felt completely alone.Job said in Chapter 19, verse 19 “All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.”What a horrible feeling that must have been!But even though those men attacked Job, in the end he was shown that he could not carry a grudge or be upset with them.God told Job to pray for them.Job 42:10 “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.”Friends are very important to our lives and a trustworthy friend is worth more that gold.The bible tells us in Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”I believe that friend is Jesus.He will never leave us or forsake us.Even when we feel we are all alone and our friends have rejected us, HE is there.Today, I pray that we can examine our hearts and ask the Lord to show us if we are a true and trustworthy friend.“True friendship is seen through the heart, not through the eyes.”
Ephesians “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Finally, the last weapon in our arsenal is prayer.This says ALL KINDS of prayers and requests.There is preventive prayer, prayer for help in time of need, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer for healing, the prayer of salvation, all kinds of prayer.Prayer is not just “thank you Lord for this food.”Some people are intimidated by prayer.As Christians, the bible tells us “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews We should be confident with our prayers, because we know that He is there and listening.Prayer is important in our battle with the enemy.We must seek God’s guidance and ask for His hand of protection over ourselves, our families and other believers. Here is a daily prayer that we can used to cover ourselves with the full Armor of God.http://www.maurywebpages.com/armor_of_god.htm Pray it every morning and see what the Lord can do!
Ephesians “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”In the armor that we have been looking at, you will notice that all of the other pieces are defensive.They are for protection.But the final piece is the only offensive tool we are given…God’s word.Hebrews says “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”It is so important to know God’s word and be able to apply it to any temptation the enemy puts before us.In Luke 4, that is exactly what Jesus did.When in the desert with satan, Jesus used the word of God to dispel all of the temptations that were thrown at him.Speaking the word of God is very powerful…we don’t even understand how much power it has over the enemy. Try speaking it out loud when you are in a situation when you know that the devil is there trying to trip you up.Sing songs that contain scripture.(Most praise songs are just scripture.)I am reminded of a song that we used to sing in choir “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.So shall I be saved from my enemies…I will call upon the Lord”. And guess what Psalm 18:3 says? “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.”You already know scripture…you just don’t realize it!Use your weapon to fight with, don’t just retreat and hide behind your shield.Come out fighting and have victory over the enemy!
Ephesians “Take the helmet of salvation…” What is the purpose of a helmet?To protect your brain, which contains your thoughts!Satan attacks us through our thoughts. The only way to protect your mind is to first make sure that you have SALVATION. The Holy Spirit within us can help us have thought control. I wrote a devotion just the other day about our thought life.That is what I’m going to share today. The title is "But He knew their thoughts…" Did your boss make you mad or upset today?Did you think of all kinds of horrible things to say to him (or her)? Or maybe you imagined some terrible thing that could happen to them?What if the rude sales associate at the store knew what you were “saying” to her in your mind?What about your wife or husband?What if they knew what you were REALLY thinking?How embarrassing and destructive it would be if people knew our true thoughts.Fortunately for us, there’s no one with super powers that can hear your thoughts, right?
Wrong.The psalmist wrote in Psalm 139 “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.”Oops!Someone does hear our thoughts.
In the New Testament, there are many scriptures showing that Jesus could read the thoughts of those around him…
*Matthew9:4 - Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?
*Matthew - Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
*Luke 9:47 - Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.
*Luke 6:8 - But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.
These words should most definitely help us understand the power Jesus had when he was here on this Earth…but what about now?God is omniscient. This means He has complete and unlimited knowledge, awareness, and understanding and He perceives ALL things. Omniscience is not restricted to any one person in the Godhead- Father, Son or Holy Spirit – they are ALL by nature omniscient.Therefore, Jesus is still hearing our thoughts as He sits at the right hand of God interceding for us. (Romans 8:34)
Just ponder on this a moment…We have no problem believing that Jesus hears us when we pray in our minds (not using audible words)…so why would we not realize that He knows EVERY thought, not just those directed at Him?This was an “Aha” moment for me.I was reading Luke chapter 6 and verse 8 hit me like a ton of bricks!“But he knew their thoughts…”
I work so very hard to control what comes out of my mouth.The things I speak can be heard, not only by the people around me, but by the demons that are stalking me trying to trip me up!But my thoughts, I wanted to believe they were mine alone. This just isn’t true.God knows my every thought. Hebrews says “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” And those thoughts are in my heart and in my mind.Proverbs says “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”Out of our hearts come the thoughts, from the thoughts come the words and deeds.
The only way to control my sinful self is to hide God’s word in my heart so that I might not sin against Him.Controlling our thoughts is a very difficult, but not impossible thing to do.Hebrews tells us “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
God’s word is the ONLY thing that can control our thought life.Never forget, someone does hear your thoughts!But, PRAISE GOD, He also hears our prayers!Ask Jesus to help you control your thoughts so that every part of your being will be pleasing to Him today!
