03 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in God is God, God Thoughts
Tags
Eternal Life, Francis Chan, God's Word, Grace, Jesus, Obedience
Is God’s word important for my life? Am I living it out in my life?
For most believers we read the word, but the word in not living in and through us. Francis Chan shares the importance of having the word of God live through you and through obedience following God.
28 Sunday May 2017
Posted in God Thoughts
New Life
Looks can be very deceiving. Sometimes, on the outside, it can look like things are falling apart. But God is working on the inside.
Jesus is making, in me, a new life. Every day His grace is working. It is a gift, His doing, but He IS doing it. Not always seen, but real nonetheless.
The same is not only true for me but others as well. A good reason not to judge for sure. So any turmoil I am going through right now is small potatoes compared to the good times that He has in store for me right around the corner.
Todays mundane, ho hum stuff will turn into an amazing celebration when Jesus completes what He is doing in me.
There is far more going on than meets the eye. I know that things are here today and gone tomorrow. The unseen things that God is doing are going to last forever.
And that is a VERY long time.
21 Sunday May 2017
Posted in God Thoughts, Quotes
John Calvin correctly observes that most of the time we are very quick to forget the great things God does for us.
What if all day I actively focused on thanking God for all the great things going on? What kind of day would that look like? Different I am thinking.
What should I do more of? Pretty simple and straightforward.
More thanks to God for the grace he has shown me through the Messiah Jesus!!
We have short memories in magnifying God’s grace. Every blessing that God confers upon us perishes through our carelessness, if we are not prompt and active in giving thanks.
—–John Calvin
12 Wednesday Oct 2016
Posted in God Thoughts, Quotes
Tags
Grace leads us somewhere very important. It leads us to where Jesus wants us to go. Grace leads us to “obedience land”.
What a glorious place. What a powerful gift. 
“Grace doesn’t overlook sin, it empowers obedience.” ~~Bill Johnson
28 Sunday Aug 2016
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts
Tags
Grace
God is gracious. It is all God, through his son Jesus, and not anything I do.
God is in a good mood and compassionate. That is the way God is.
When I call out to God, he listens to me. Jesus is my advocate, sitting next to God, having defeated death. I have the Holy Spirit in me, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
God makes things right. That is just the way it is.
It is all about God and his graciousness. I has nothing to do with me.
I love God because he listened to me,
listened as I begged for mercy.
He listened so intently
as I laid out my case before him.
Death stared me in the face,
hell was hard on my heels.
Up against it, I didn’t know which way to turn;
then I called out to God for help:
“Please, God!” I cried out.
“Save my life!”
God is gracious—it is he who makes things right,
our most compassionate God.
God takes the side of the helpless;
when I was at the end of my rope, he saved me.
Source: Psalm 116:1-2 MSG – I love GOD because he listened to me, – Bible Gateway
06 Wednesday Jul 2016
Posted in God Thoughts
We don’t like to think about it but there are a number of messages delivered by men of God that aren’t good news. There are many that are at odds with the gift of grace that the Messiah Jesus has bestowed on us.
It happens easily.
It only shows our fickleness when we believe them.
We need to know what the message of good news is. We need to stick with it. We must reject anything else.
May we stand firm today.
I can’t believe your fickleness—how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of the Messiah by embracing a variant message!”
~~Apostle Paul (Galatians 1:6 The Message)
11 Wednesday May 2016
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
Generosity, Grace, Jesus, Jesus Sayings, Matthew 5, Maturity
Jesus has a great way to simplify what He is saying. Jesus is very direct and doesn’t beat around the bush.
So, Jesus challenges me to grow up.
I know I am a child of God and live in His World (Kingdom). I know Jesus is in charge of my life when I let Him be.
22 Monday Feb 2016
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
Apostle Paul Sayings, Galatians 1, Grace, Jesus, Love, Messiah, Sacrifice, Trouble
Grace
I was in big trouble. I didn’t feel God’s love. I didn’t know how to love. I missed God’s goal for my life. Over and over again, minute by minute. Day in and day out. Yes, I was in big trouble.
Jesus rescued me from all of that. Having never missed God’s goal, Jesus became the sacrifice I needed. I now know love and can love. I am focused on God’s plan and not my own. It is God’s gift to me and nothing I have done.
We know the meaning of those words because Jesus the Messiah rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our missing God’s goal (sin).” ~~Apostle Paul (Galatians 1:4 The Message)
16 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
Grace
There is such a thing as tit for tat. Being mean gets you meanness in return. While Jesus teaches us to turn the other cheek, not everyone will do that. Meanness in our soul brings out meanness in others.
There is a better way. God’s goal for us is to be gracious. God is not mean but gracious and caring to us. When we are gracious to others, they will find it difficult to be mean.
May our words and actions reflect a gracious spirit!
A mean person gets paid back in meanness, a gracious person in grace. Proverbs 14:14
29 Thursday Oct 2015
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
1 Peter 5, Alert, Apostle Peter Sayings, Devil, Enemy, Grace, Jesus, Lion, Messiah, Resist, Restore, Sober, Strong
I need to keep a cool head. I should be on the alert at all times. I must keep my guard up. No napping when it comes to my enemy, the devil. God has a great plan for me. My challenges won’t last forever. It is true with all my brothers and sisters in the Lord.
I must get a grip. A firm grip. Faith in Jesus, the Messiah and my Master, will see me through. Jesus has put me on my feet. Jesus gets the last word.
Yes, it is His goal and His plan.
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your fellow believers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in the Messiah, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:8-10
27 Thursday Aug 2015
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts
We need to get back to using blessings when we greet people and leave. How powerful it is to be a blessing to others and speak a good word into their day. Our words matter and blessings we bring forward to others, by our words, are a huge thing in God’s world.
Paul did this and frequently blessed others with …
Grace – χάρις – meaning a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ, favor, gratitude, thanks, kindness.
And then …
Peace – εἰρήνη – meaning peace of mind; invocation of peace a common Jewish farewell, in the Hebraistic sense of the health (welfare) of an individual.
How powerful for us and those we know. May I great others with that blessing.
“So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace!” ~~Apostle Paul (Galatians 1:3 The Message)
17 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
What a gift it is to know our Master Jesus. It isn’t anything I have earned. Our Father just loves me so much that He gives me this amazing opportunity. That is His grace (gift).
May I grow in knowing Jesus today. To know Him is to love Him. And to be able, because of that love, to love others. I am not there yet. But I can grow in knowledge of Him. That is the focus.
Grow is the goal. Grow. Grow in grace. Grow in knowledge. That is the glory I must focus on.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:18
09 Sunday Aug 2015
Posted in Quotes
Tags
Grace
I need to understand that God sent Jesus to redeem the whole world, not just me. Are my conversations with him all about my complaining about the petty problems I face? Is that the right way to view our relationship?
It’s not about me.
It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
21 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
2 Peter 1, Apostle Peter Sayings, Excellence, Glory, Godliness, Grace, Knowledge, Life, Power
It just keeps rolling on. Over and over again. God’s grace. God’s peace.
Multiplying infinitely and never stopping. This happens as I deepen my experience with God and Jesus. This is what I want to experience in a life of pleasing God. My relationship with Jesus should be personal and intimate. We should be friends. God is so very good to use a multiplier for knowing his son Jesus, the Messiah and for the peace that comes from that knowledge.
Jesus has given me a ticket to participate in the life of God. I have turned my back on a corrupt world. I share in the godliness of Jesus.
May I see His amazingly divine POWER!!!
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Master; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:2-4
25 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts
God’s generosity extends to everyone. He includes the evil, the bad and the nasty in His plans to redeem and restore. He is not like us, good to those who are good to us but vindictive to those who hurt us.
He gives his best to everyone. Think about that. In our world, we dole things out in a hierarchical way. Average things to most people and the best for a few. Not our Father. He gives his best to everyone. No distinctions.
Here are the key ideas:
“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. (Matthew 5:43-47 The Message)
19 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
Gift of God
That God has done something in my life is a real surprise, Him handling every single detail. It is nothing but a gift, His riches which I have a hard time understanding, coming to me every day.
I am writing about things that are way over my head.
My task is to bring out into open what He is doing. God’s goal for me is to make sure everyone hears the good news.
His generosity is amazing. It is hard to get my arms around it.
The credit goes to Him. It is His work for sure.
To me, the very least of all saints, this gift was given, to proclaim the Good News of the unfathomable riches of Christ, Ephesians 3:8
11 Sunday May 2014
Posted in God Thoughts, God's Goal
Tags
Special Agent for God
God has a plan for us. Under His plan, we are special agents of Jesus. His assignments for us aren’t “normal”. They are special. Planned out just for us. How amazing is that?
Now that is some very good news for today. That brings some much needed grace and peace to our lives.
I, Paul, am under God’s plan as an apostle, a special agent of the Messiah Jesus, writing to you faithful believers in Ephesus. I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus the Messiah. Ephesians 1:1-2
May I understand the role God has for me and serve as His special agent.
12 Saturday Apr 2014
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts
Tags
Some times it seems like we just can’t make it. Yet, perseverance rules the day. Even if it looks like things are falling apart, they aren’t. Sometimes others can’t see what is going on inside. God is making a new life for us. He is doing it now. Not a day goes by that God’s isn’t giving us everything we need for the day.
There are things that we see now that have no lasting value. They are here today but may not be 5 years from now. Or even tomorrow for that matter. Unrealized gains and unrealized losses. What is important is what lasts forever.
God is so very good to us. He has given us life that will go on forever. Today is but a drop in the bucket for our life. Imagine 10 trillion years times 10 trillion years. That is the life we have in God.
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
May I stick with God today and forever.
May I experience His grace.
29 Saturday Mar 2014
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich … Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God … “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (2 Corinthians 8:9; 3:5 and Luke 9:23)
“For you know the grace (i.e, the gift of joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, and loveliness) of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
So what is grace? It is the gift of God that brings joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, and loveliness into our life. We didn’t earn this. It is given to us by what Jesus did for us. God is good and He is in a good mood.
In order for Jesus to rescue us from our desperate situation, He had to become poor. He had to give up the joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, and loveliness he experienced in living with God. When He hung on the cross for us, He took the spiritual poverty of our missing God’s goal for our life and guilt about that upon Himself. What a humbling picture of our inborn spiritual condition. Basically, we had to agree with the Lord, humbling ourselves before Him, asking for His help. Additionally, faith was involved. We had to believe that through His death and resurrection, we could become spiritually rich, that is, forgiven of the results of missing God’s goal and right standing in His sight.
Let’s take a reflective look at humility and faith. We repeatedly encounter these two relational realities in God’s words to us. We encounter this in Jesus’ radical demands for us. This is to be expected, since “God…gives grace to the humble“ (James 4:6), and “we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:2).
Humility and faith are seen as vital for walking in this new life in the Messiah. His call to us to not live a normal life. It is a mission to live a life radically different than we can imagine. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” The sufficiency we need for Christian living does not originate in us. Actually, we must not think of “anything as being from ourselves.” How humbling to learn, even as born-again believers, that we need the Lord in everything. Then, how do we find the necessary resources? This is where faith applies. “Our sufficiency is from God.” This is truth that we are to believe.
When we look at Christian discipleship, humility and faith again appeared. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me“ (Luke 9:23). Jesus’ call to come and follow Him can only be received by those who will say, “No to self” and “Death to self.” This is humiliating to the self-life, to think it is not good enough, to admit that it belongs on the cross. This is especially humbling when we see that these are to be our daily confessions. The rest of the discipleship issue is settled by faith, trusting in Jesus each step of every day. He is our pioneer in how to live this life. He has given us the power of His Holy Spirit to make it happen.
Here are the key ideas:
21 Friday Mar 2014
Posted in God is Good, God Thoughts
Tags
I grew up in a “rule keeping” church. It was pretty clear that if I didn’t do certain things I could find favor with GOD. So I tried. And tried. But …
I can’t do anything to “win” God’s love. It is free. Jesus, our Master, paid the price to win it for me. It is that straightforward. That is what “grace” means. It is a gift. I can’t do anything to get access to it.
My relationship with God is a gift. I can’t earn it. No amount of Church attendance will get me right with God. No amount of rule keeping. God is good. He always loves us and is kind to give us a place at the table as His children.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then the Messiah died unnecessarily.
~~Galatians 2:21
