In this time of the COVID 19 pandemic, I don’t know about you, but it’s been very difficult to “fix my thoughts on Jesus.” With all the over the top media coverage, and expert opinions changing everyday…it’s hard not to fixate on the fear and uncertainty of the situation. Couple that with the limits that’s been placed on meeting as a body of Believers, and I wonder if this dry spell spiritually is God’s wake up call? We are told here to fulfill our calling…a calling of holiness and sanctification according to His purpose in our lives. We are to fight the good fight of faith, (I Timothy 6:12) striving always for God’s perspective, not ours. When we fix our thoughts on Jesus rather than the world…our soul is brought into balance, priories become clear, and God’s lofty plan and purpose is revealed. But if we continue to sit in the corner looking at our belly-buttons…totally self-absorbed in our fears…we won’t be able to see or participate in God’s work. This is called being a nominal or lukewarm Christian…and God has no use for those type of people. This is the time to fix our thoughts on Jesus, not veering to the left or right, but looking fully into His face with trust and hope. For in the next months, the Church as we know it will have to adapt and change, and we’ll have to change with it. But God will be raising up people to accept this challenge…people with a eternal vision. To quote A.W. Tozer, “They serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary.” The time of lukewarm Christianity is coming to an end.
Tag: daily devotional
Revelation 1:5-6 ” To Him Who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father – to Him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Have I taken the time today to thank God? Now I tend to take things for granted…my health, safety, material needs. And it’s not until I have some kind of close call or problem that I suddenly stop and thank God for watching out over me! This verse illustrates how God’s great love for us was revealed in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, Who came to break the chains of sin…the sacrifice of His blood making our atonement. And after accomplishing this miraculous feat, now lives in our hearts. (Luke 17:21) Yes, I have so much to thank God for…His love, grace, mercy, and the very breath in my body.
Exodus 32:1 ” When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ “
These people were the same ones who had just witnessed Moses parting the Red Sea so they might escape Pharaoh’s army…but their attention span was short, and their loyalties to God fickle as the days wore on with no sight of Moses. So they rejected him as some fly-by-night wannabe and demanded that Aaron make them a replacement god. While still up on the mountain, Moses learned of this when God told him, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves.” (Deuteronomy 9:12) Fast forward to today, and nothing much has changed. We get bored easily, we like our information in sound-bites, and we want God to perform at the snap of our fingers…but He doesn’t work that way! Waiting on the Lord is a faith-building, trust-strengthening, hope-fulfilling endurance race that takes us from marginal Christianity to mighty warrior of God.
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Earlier in the Book of Hebrews, the author quotes Psalm 102 when he writes, “But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.” There in Psalm 102 it goes on to say that everything as we know it will eventually wear out like clothing, be discarded and perish…except the Lord, for He will continue unchanged to all eternity. I don’t know about you, but the last few months have seemed like a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs, so the quiet comfort and security of placing my trust in a everlasting Savior quiets my soul and gives me peace and hope.
I Chronicles 16:24-26 ” Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
God spoke through Isaiah when he wrote, “They will proclaim My glory among the nations.” (Isaiah 66:19) Jesus told His disciples in the Great Commission to, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19) We are also to declare His majesty…confess the wondrous things He does…profess our reverence and awe in Him…make known His worthiness…and reveal to those who don’t know Him yet that what they search for can be found in Him.
Titus 3:8 ” I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”
In this letter to Titus, Paul is encouraging him to exhort the early Church in Crete to, “do what is good.” Now earlier in this Chapter Paul plainly lays out what this means for Titus…submit to authority, be obedient, peaceable, considerate, and humble. So how does this apply to us today? When we put our faith in Jesus Christ we become His hands and feet to not only proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to the world, but to represent Him to others. And in doing so emulating His character and attributes. So hopefully when people look at us-they see Jesus.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 ” Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them.’ “
King Solomon had spent most of his life pursuing worldly pleasures…trying to find joy and peace in temporal things. But now at the end of his life he was taking a honest look back and concluding that all these fleshly and carnal things had never provided the peace and joy that a relationship with God had brought. He warned of not taking the Lord seriously in verses 6 and 7, “Remember Him – before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it.” None of us knows the day of our death, and Solomon was urging the reader to consider the vanity of worldly pursuits vs the satisfaction of knowing the Lord.
Romans 5:6-8 ” You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
You may not know Him…but He still knows you. In fact, He’s known every intimate detail about you before you were even born. You may not believe in Him…but He’s been faithfully sharing the beauty of the world He created with you every day. You may think you don’t need the “spiritual crutch” of religion, and that you can make it on your own…but the harsh reality is, you can’t…for no one can. That’s because we’re all sinners living in a very wicked and broken world…none of us with the ability to save ourselves. You may have never thought about Him…but He cares about you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die in your place on that Cross.
Matthew 5:38-39 ” You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
The Old Testament Law was very specific when it came to personal injuries. Exodus 21:23-24 says, “But if there’s serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” And Leviticus 24:19-20 went on to direct, “If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.” So when Jesus spoke these words of passive resistance and tolerance rather than retaliation and revenge…it turned these Old Testament Laws on their heads. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, came to earth declaring a message of love and harmony with our fellow man…and not of repaying evil for evil. (Romans 12:17 & I Peter 3:9)
Psalm 20:7-8 ” Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.”
The fundamental question here is where are you placing your trust today? If it’s in yourself, or the things of the world… you’re headed for disappointment. For you can’t place your confidence in shifting sand and expect to come out all right. But maybe you’re in a difficult place right now and declaring God’s sovereignty over your life is near impossible. May I remind you of Micah 7:8, “Don’t gloat over me, my enemy! Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.” Our trust in God isn’t dependent on the situation we’re in, the severity of the circumstances, or even on how we feel in the moment. Our faith in God is activated, increased, and strengthened every time we decree and affirm His Name.
Safetypinlove 