Walk

But Peter said, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have, I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!"  ~Acts 3:6 HCSB

Peter and John was going up to the temple complex and a crippled man was place every day by the entrance, a gate called ‘Beautiful”.  As they passed the man begging both men looked directly at the man and said to the crippled man, “look at us”.  Expecting to receive money Peter said, I don’t have silver of Gold, but what I do have I give to you”.  

Peter had so much more than money or any other possession.  Peter had life, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene.  Peter shared his greatest gift, the greatest possession in the world, Jesus.  The result the crippled man got up and walked!  His life was returned to him and he was set free from his fleshly prison.  That is what Jesus does for us all, He sets us free.  Free from sin, freedom from ourselves, free to be what God intended us to be.  Jesus restores us; he binds our broken hearts and gives us a new start.  He makes us a new creature and lives in us for all to see.  In Christ we reach our full potential, in Christ we bloom for the glory of God, who is to be praised forever!

Lord thank you for your Son Jesus who gives us a new start, who forgives us and sets us free.  Lord set us free from the chains of self, money and pleasure and let us live for you.  Lord live through us and let the whole world see your glory!  Amen

Daily Reading:  Acts 4-6; Proverbs 10:1-16

Devoted

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers.” ~Acts 2:42 HCSB

Sitting in the upper room the apostles and others prayed.  120 strong gathered together praying when the Holy Spirit filled them in dramatic fashion. Once the believers were filled they could not contain themselves and they poured out onto the crowded street and immediately share the good news of Jesus Christ.  Peter boldly stood up and preaches his first sermon, the same Peter who had denied Christ three times.  So powerful was the chain of events 3000 people repented and put their faith in Christ. These new converts devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.

This hasn’t changed.  Today we are to do the very same thing these new disciples did.  We are to devote ourselves to the teaching of the apostles, by participating in bible study and hearing the preaching of the word.  This is to be done in fellowship with other believers and who are devoted to one another.  This unique fellowship of believers is to be bathed in prayer, praying together.  This powerful picture established the first church and has carried the church for over two thousand years.

Lord thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who makes all of this possible.  Lord convict us and move us to a fellowship of believers.  Lord bind us to the teaching of the Scriptures and prayer.  Lord use us to share Christ with the world today!  Amen

Daily Reading:  Acts 1-3; Proverbs 9        

Presence

Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ~Exodus 40:35 HCSB 

The tabernacle was finished. The Israelites had done everything the Lord had commanded. Everything was made perfectly to the way the Lord had wanted it to be. This potable temple was perfect, God had seen to it personally. He moved in the people's hearts and give them the knowledge and skills needed to accomplish the task. When it was finished God was pleased and gave a sign for all the people to see, His glory rested on it. So thick was the presence of the Lord, in the form a cloud, Moses could not enter. 

The Lord still works in the lives of people. He gives the skills and abilities needed to accomplish His will. He has provided us a way to have a deep and personal relationship with Him through His Son. Through His Son we the church are being built up into the body of Christ and holy temple for the Lord. Only now instead of a cloud the presence of the Lord is in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. God's presence is in us! 

Lord fill us with your presence! Lord I pray we would fully understand that we are part of the temple, the body of Christ. That your presence rest in us for the world to see, use us Lord to bring you honor and glory. Used us Lord to show others your love, mercy and grace you have shown us. Lord used us to show the world your Son Jesus, in whose name I pray, Amen. 

Daily Reading: Exodus 38-40; Proverbs 8

Slippery

"She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk." ~Proverbs 7:21

Have you faced temptation? In the book of Proverbs, written by King Solomon he talks about a young man seduced into adultery. He tells the young man everything he wants to hear, plays to his desires and in the end it takes his life. Sin is enticing, it is born out of a desire we already have and it snares us. It plays to our senses, we compromise with it, we reason why it's not that bad. I have learned if you have to justify it to do it, maybe you shouldn't. Once we fall into the trap of there is only one out come and that is death. Death of relationship with others, death to sensitivity to sin (hardened heart), most of all death in a relationship with God.

The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) Wages, the result of sin is death and the remedy for sin is Jesus Christ. How do we overcome sin's slippery slope? Christ! By putting our faith in Christ and repenting. Repenting is turning from our sin and turning to Christ who forgives us of our sin. Not only does He forgive us but He enables us to resist sin. He does this by putting His Spirit in us and guiding us and strengthening us. We need to listen and follow His Spirit. We need to draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to us. (James 4:8)

Lord forgive us of our sin. Lord help us to turn from sin and to turn to your son Jesus in all that we do. Lord Jesus help us to live for you, to allow you to work through us. Lord keep us from all sin and may you be glorified in everything we do. Amen

Daily Reading: Exodus 35-37; Proverbs 7

Moved

"Everyone whose heart was moved" Exodus 35:21b

The people of Israel were given a task of building the Tabernacle, a portable temple. Reading this chapter you get to see God moving in the hearts of the people. He has a detailed plan and He actively guides and directs the people, by moving in their hearts. He gives the knowledge and wisdom needed to the leaders. God fills the workers with the skill needed to do the detail work. We see this pattern played out again in the New Testament in establishing the early church. God takes average people and gives the wisdom and skills need to perform the task need to build His church.

God hasn't changed He still works the same way today. He takes people and gives them the ability needed to build His church to reach people for His glory. You have skills and talents needed to build the body of Christ. Each Christian is given gifts for that very purpose. All these gifts working together and show the world God's love for them. He calls and gives the ability needed. So where is God calling you to use your gifts and talents? I want to encourage you to listen to God and follow Him in building for the Kingdom.

Lord give us today tender hearts, hearts that listen to you and move us. Move us to greater service for you. Call us to build in your name sake and give us the skills, ability and wisdom needed to accomplish your will in our lives. Thank you Lord for using me, Amen!

Daily Reading: Reflection day, catch up if you need too and most of all have a great day in the Lord.

Sermon: Living Hope: Rejoicing (1 Peter 1:8-9)

Sermon: Living Hope: Rejoice 

Living Hope

-Set apart

We are chosen, set apart according to the foreknowledge of God the father.  Set apart for obedience in Christ.  Praise God, according to His great mercy, who has given us a “Living Hope” in Christ!  Through his death and resurrection for which we now have an inheritance!

-Secure Future

This inheritance is imperishable, incorruptible and unfading!  Our future is kept and secured by God Himself!  

-Pure Joy

Knowing this swells ‘pure joy’ in our hearts, this joy carries us through the struggles and various trails we face day to day.  Each event builds our faith as we trust in God’s faithfulness.  He loves us and takes the time to refines us; the result is praise, glory and honor to Jesus Christ!  

Which brings us to our verses today and it continues this thought of growing joy. 

“You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8–9, HCSB) 

Rejoicing  v.8

-Loved

When I first read this I can’t help but to think about Jesus at the end of the gospel of John when he said, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed.  Those who believe without seeing are blessed.” (John 20:29) “You love Him”, the word love here means continual--regular activity--on going—it doesn’t stop!

The reader of this letter lived in a continual relationship with Christ—experiencing His love in a close daily relationship.

Through prayer and worship—through growing and reflecting on the written word of God, they had no doubt of Christ, the Living Hope.

“This hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. ” (Romans 5:5, HCSB) 

-Believed in

They believed in Christ, they trusted Christ.  They rested their confidence in Him, they depended on Christ.  This was a special relationship.  The word used with believe is “in” or the Greek word “eis”.  This verb was never used before the New Testament, and it implies going “into” something.  

In this case it is their personal faith was going ‘into” Christ and remaining there, resting there and remaining there. Taking refuge and seeking safety in Christ, experiencing Christ…

-Now

The believers where experiencing Christ Now--not in the future age—but now in the present.  Peter at the beginning of this letter shares the hope of a future glory, but now he is talking and reflecting on Christ now.

We see the believers loving Christ though they could not see Him—living in a continuing relationship with Him through prayer—worship—and scripture. 

*Side note* All of this was being done in community with others believers.  There were not ‘printed bibles’—you had to come to the place where they were.  Prayer and worship as always connected with the body of believers.  Strengthening and building each other up!  

You cannot replace this with email, social networking, skype, instant messaging, text messaging or telephone conversations, it has to be done face to face, living in Christ together!  That is why Sunday school is so important, studying the Bible in community.  Sunday night prayer is so important, I hope more of you will come out and make it priority.  

There is only one person who doesn’t want you to attend.  He comes to divide us and he doesn’t want you praying and studying with other believers,   because there is power in the community of believers worshiping and praying together.  These believers in this letter where living with the future in their hearts and believing in and trusting in Christ ‘now’, they were experiencing Christ in their lives daily!

They were trusting Christ—dependent on Christ—‘in’ Christ—resting and dwelling there and this greatly impacted their lives—it proclaimed the glory of Christ to them and everyone around them.

-Inexpressible 

The result of this relationship was rejoicing—continual rejoicing—rejoicing now—rejoicing with “inexpressible and glorious joy”! 

The word glorious is the same word that carries the idea of shining with the glory of the Lord.  Moses went up on the mountain and asked to see the Lord.  The Lord told him he would place His hand over his face and he would pass by and allow Moses to see His back.  The result of that was Moses was left ‘shining’ with the ‘glory’ of the Lord.  He shone so brightly the people where afraid and asked Moses to veil his face.

This is the idea Peter is sharing here, the people where so filled with rejoicing, they could not express it with words and were ‘shining’ with the Lords glorious joy! 

Peter in earlier verses talked about rejoicing in future hope, here he is saying that our personal, daily fellowship with Jesus himself is cause for greater rejoicing.

Stop and think about this for just a moment.  We all walk around defeated—where is our joy?  I have said this before and I’ll say it again—we should be the happiest people on earth!  (Turn to your neighbor and tell them to rejoice!)

Knowing that Christ is with us no matter what!

“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:35–39, HCSB) 

We have the access to the King—The King—He looks after us—because we are His children!

He is a place of rest for the wary--he is safety from the enemy—He lives in us and through us—there is nothing impossible for Him!

 O’ Christian REJOICE!  Rejoice so profoundly that is beyond your words—rejoice with fullness of your heart—Rejoice!

Rejoice in the glory of Christ—exalt his glory in everything—rejoice in the presence of God Himself—with the joy from heaven—embrace and experience now in the fellowship with the unseen Christ! Why do we rejoice?

Because v.9

“Because” you are rejoicing in your salvation.

-Salvation

Through this unique, glorious relationship with Christ—you are being blessed daily, as He moves you to the full blessing of knowing Him.

Christ as he leads you to the goal—the outcome of this life.  As He builds your faith—builds your life more and more around the blessing of your salvation.  Christ moves you to experience Him in all of what life has to offer---the good and bad, through terrible tragedy—to the birth of a new born child

All that life is, Christ grows in us—shaping us into His likeness—We learn to live in His grace and not in our works.  As we surrender to Him—giving more and more of ourselves to Him the more we are blessed and the more we rejoice.

All of this in verse nine shows us the “how” and the “why” for the reason to rejoice—with inexpressible and glorious joy.

-The Gospel-The Living Hope

The gospel, the good news—the Living Hope—is more than just a religion.  It is so much more than just living a certain way to please someone or something. I hope you can see from these verses what is being said here.  The Christian faith is about a deep relationship with Christ.

That as in all relationships it takes time to grow and mature.  That this relationship is worth pursuing, trusting Christ—though you cannot see Him—you can know Him—That He is alive and He wants a relationship with you!

A deep satisfying to the soul relationship that is beyond anything in your life. 

A relationship with Jesus Christ—The Living Hope! 

Understanding

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths."  ~Proverbs 3:5-6 HCSB

How many times do we struggle through life and wonder what went wrong. We make plans and decisions and ask God to bless them and when they fail we blame God for the failure. Proverbs reminds us to put God first and to trust Him. Trusting God with all of our hearts doesn't happen overnight it takes time. So how do we learn to trust God?

Firstly we need to invite God into all of our ways. Inviting Him into our daily activities and decisions and allowing Him to guide us. By doing so we will start to rely on God for all of our daily needs and we start to trust Him with our lives. "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act" (Psalm 37:5). The hard part in all of this is not relying on our own understanding, putting our trust in anything other than God, will lead to disappointment. We may succeed according to the world's standards, but fail in following the plan God has for you. Our true satisfaction in this life can only be found in the will of God and following His plan for us.

Lord help us to trust you. Help us not to rely on our own understand. Lord come into our lives and guide us. Guide us onto the paths and plans you have for our lives and help us to trust you with all of our hearts. Amen.

Daily Reading: Exodus 25-27; Proverbs 4

Be Strong

You, therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ~2 Timothy 2:1 HCSB

The gospel isn't just for those who don't know Christ. The gospel is for us all, believers and non believers. Paul talking to Timothy from a prison cell, he reminds him of just that. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Living with the knowledge that Christ died for us. While we were still sinner, when we didn't deserve it, Christ died for us. It is so easy for us to lose sight of this grace extended to us. When we do lose sight we start to try and regulate our salvation or we just go to the other extreme and do whatever we want. Soon we start to project those beliefs on others and instead of uniting Christians we divide them.

Paul had seen this played out everywhere he went and wanted Timothy to learn to live in grace, in fact be strong in grace. Keeping the gospel in front of us, humbling us and strengthening us. The gospel is a constant reminder of who we were and who we are. It lifts us to rejoicing when we suffer and face trials. It allows us to love those who cannot even love themselves. It allows for forgiveness to those who wrong us. It gives us patients for those who are still learning. Grace is amazing and it can only be found in Jesus Christ, living in the knowledge of Him and what He has done for us on the cross and through the resurrection.

Lord help us to be strong in grace. To keep before us the death and resurrection of your Son, who defeated sin and death through His sacrifice. Lord let your grace shine though us in everything we do. Amen

Daily Reading: Exodus 21-24; Proverbs 3

Able to Endure

If you do this, and God so directs you, you will be able to endure, and also all these people will be able to go home satisfied." ~Exodus 18:23 HCSB

Have you ever tried to do too much? Moses was leading the people of Israel and hearing all the cases needing direction. He was overwhelmed and the people's needs were not being met. Jethro, Moses father-in-law was visiting and was watching Moses struggle and made a suggestion. Jethro suggested appointing judges over ten, hundreds and thousands. Divide up the work and let the judges under him handle the minor cases and Moses would only handle the important cases.

Moses listened to Jethro and in the process learned an important lesson. Moses learned to delegate. He realized he could not do it all and he needed help. Does this sound familiar? We need to understand what is important in our lives and to allow others to help us. By letting others to carry some of the burden we lighten our own load and get more accomplished. Plus it builds relationships and gives you the opportunity to give your best. We are in this life together, it was never meant to be lived alone. Most of all by doing this we are able to endure, to bring glory to God in all we do.

Lord help us understand the importance of sharing life together. Help us to understand that it is alright to delegate in life, to allow others to help. Put people in our lives who want to help and who are willing carry the burden together. Lord most of all help us understand what is important in our lives and to put you first. Thank you Lord, Amen.

Daily Reading: Exodus 18-20; Proverbs 2

Be Quiet

The LORD will fight for you; you must be quiet." ~Exodus 14:14 HCSB

I remember growing up getting scrapes and in the middle of all the crying mom says, "Be quiet, be still", as she patches you up. The people of Israel had just left Egypt and were camped along the Red Sea. The Egyptian army appeared on the horizon and the people became afraid. Moses stood among the people and told them, "Don't be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord's salvation" and then he closed with, "The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet."

Moses didn't tell the people to stand up and fight, but to be quiet and trust the Lord. There are times in life when we will face these moments. When we are facing a superior foe and all we can do is be quiet and trust the Lord to fight for us. What are you facing? What is barreling down on you and you are afraid. Today I want to encourage you to stand still and be quiet. Be still and know the Lord will fight for you. There is nothing impossible with God and He will see you through those times, we just need to trust Him.

Lord help us to be quiet, to trust you in those impossible moments.  When life is overwhelming, help us to be still and trust you to fight for us.  Lord I thank you for all you do, especially in these times.  Lord thank you, Amen.

Daily Reading: Exodus 15-17; Proverbs 1