Thursday, February 16, 2012
Life Verse
Early in my Christian life I came upon Philippians 1:6. God immediately spoke to my heart and I took this verse as my life verse. Being confidant of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He began a good work in me (and you) at salvation. And He promises to perform and complete that good work until He comes back again. That is comforting. I preached on a Sunday evening recently "Don't Doubt in the Valley what God Has Shown You on the Mountain". We all face rough times. According to the promise of this verse, God is busy working behind the scenes to perfect and complete us, even when we can't see it. When we can't see God's hand, we can still trust His heart!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Art of Truly Being Somebody
There seems to be a pattern in the Bible concerning how God works in the lives of believers. We know that God is constantly at work in the life of the child of God, drawing him more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. I believe that Moses is a good example of this pattern of growing into Christ-likeness. Moses lived to be 120 years of age. His life can be divided into three segments of 40 years each. 1. The first 40: Moses became SOMEBODY having grown up in Pharaoh's court in Egypt.
2. The second 40: Moses became a NOBODY on the backside of the desert.
3. The last 40: God showed what He can do with a NOBODY completely surrendered to Him!
It was the last 40 years in which God used Moses to set the people free and bring them to the edge of the Promised Land. Obviously, this was not the hand of Moses, but of God, and He gets all the glory.
I have observed the same pattern in my own life and journey. You may remember winning victory after victory in your early Christian life. It seemed like life was one mountaintop experience after another. You truly were SOMEBODY! But, you may also remember a time when it seemed, like Moses, that you were wandering aimlessly on the backside of the desert. It is a time of tests. A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. You may be wandering in the wilderness right now. The desert experience is meant to help us die to ourselves. To become a NOBODY. It is only after we die to self that God can use us to glorify Himself. Don't you long for God to work in such a way that it is obvious that we had no part in it-that God's hand was at work mightily, and only He can get the glory. That is the art of truly being SOMEBODY. At the end of the day, I am just a nobody. But what a joy to see God use a nobody to bring glory and honor to Himself.
2. The second 40: Moses became a NOBODY on the backside of the desert.
3. The last 40: God showed what He can do with a NOBODY completely surrendered to Him!
It was the last 40 years in which God used Moses to set the people free and bring them to the edge of the Promised Land. Obviously, this was not the hand of Moses, but of God, and He gets all the glory.
I have observed the same pattern in my own life and journey. You may remember winning victory after victory in your early Christian life. It seemed like life was one mountaintop experience after another. You truly were SOMEBODY! But, you may also remember a time when it seemed, like Moses, that you were wandering aimlessly on the backside of the desert. It is a time of tests. A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. You may be wandering in the wilderness right now. The desert experience is meant to help us die to ourselves. To become a NOBODY. It is only after we die to self that God can use us to glorify Himself. Don't you long for God to work in such a way that it is obvious that we had no part in it-that God's hand was at work mightily, and only He can get the glory. That is the art of truly being SOMEBODY. At the end of the day, I am just a nobody. But what a joy to see God use a nobody to bring glory and honor to Himself.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Tortoise Thursdays
We have just recently got our new church website up and running. Though it is not complete, it is nearly so. You can access the website at faithbaptistosawatomie.com. There is one page that is listed as devotional. We will change that to Tortoise Thursdays, and my post on this blog will listed there. It is called Tortoise Thursdays because every Thursday morning I go to the Tortoise Art Gallery and Coffee Shop in Paola to have a vanilla latte and work on the computer. I will write the devotional at that time. That is pretty much what I am doing right now. The first devotional is based on Proverbs 3 where God's Word says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths." We are living in complex times. If we do not acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, we have no hope of maneuvering successfully through the maze of modern life. I remember years ago wanting to take a trip to the east coast. I sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to my spirit and advising against the trip, yet, I went anyway because it was what I wanted to do. In retrospect, it was a trip that I should not have taken. I now can see the wisdom of "lean not to thy own understanding" and "in all thy ways acknowledge Him". You see, our sight is limited to the here and now, and yesterday, but His sight is past, present, and FUTURE because He is already there. God help us to truly "trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thy own understanding" and "in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths"!
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