Imitate God

Imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are His dear children (Eph. 5:1 NLT)

What would Jesus do?  A few years ago, there were bracelets, shirts, bumper stickers,etc. everywhere for you to see.  I think today the world would benefit from more of us asking that question before making decisions.  We're called to imitate Christ & we need to know what He would do if we are going to follow through with that.  Think about the things you do in a typical day.  Did you imitate Christ?  Did you imitate Him at work, school, home, the store or when going out to eat?  Did you imitate Him in your words?  Did you imitate Him in your love & service to others?  What about driving down the road?  Was your day lived in fear, frustration, or defeat?  We all struggle in imitating Christ at some point or another.  But if we make it a priority to start asking " What would Jesus do in this situation?"  What a different place this world would be.  So the challenge today is start asking that question before making decisions, & be the imitator you have been called to be!

Double for your trouble

When Job prayed for His friends, the Lord restored His fortunes.m in fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! (Job 42:10 NLT)

Job went through all the tragedies & suffering with his "friends" not really being his friends.  Before he was restored, God wanted Job to sow forgiveness & let go of the hurt.  Once he did that, he was restored double.  Satan will tell you that you have a right to hold on to what someone has done to you. God will tell you He wants to bless you but you have to let go of it.  It's not up to you to deal with people who have hurt you anyway.  Allow God to restore what has been taken from you.  Don't let yourself get hung up on people who have hurt you.  Keep focused on living as God wants you to & allow Him to work out the rest.  The greater the struggle, the greater the payback.  So when the struggles & the hurts come don't focus on them, focus on the payback.  If you're Gods child, He released you from your debt so how can you hold on to someone else's debt.  Think double for your trouble!

Christ in me

I have been crucified with Christ; &it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; & the life which now I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me & gave himself up for me (Gal. 2:20 NASB)

Christ died on the cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life with Him.  If you haven't accepted that gift yet, please do so today. Just ask Him to forgive your sins, for Him to be your Lord & Savior & for Him to take over your life.  When He was on the cross, He took our sins, defeats, past, sickness, &failures to the cross with Him.  When He rose again, He gave us the victory over all of that.  Also, I believe He took our desires to the cross with Him so that we would have His desires.  If we are Christians, we have given up what we want to do for what He wants us to do.  We know if He loved us enough to die for us, He wants the best for us.  Because of what He did for us, we can live boldly & victoriously.  Whatever has been holding you back, He has taken to the cross & said "it is finished." he suffered for our freedom.  Take advantage of that gift & live life to the fullest.  He took our past & made us new so there's nothing to hold you back from doing His work.

Focus

But when he saw the strong wind & the waves, he was terrified & began to sink. "Save me, Lord!" he shouted. (Matt 14:30 NLT)

Peter walked on water.  Not many of us can say that.  Now some of you will point out that he started to sink but he walked farther on water than you & I probably ever have.  He didn't start sinking till he looked at the wind & the waves.  He probably felt them as well. His focus was taken off of Christ.  His focus was shifted to what was going on around him.  That often happens to us.  Somebody offends us, we become frustrated, debt,bad medical report, relationship problems & all of a sudden we feel the wind & the waves. But what got Peter out of the boat in the first place was he saw Christ. Now, He knew anything was possible because Christ was there.  Well, He's still there with us.  So whats impossible? Before you answer, don't think about your circumstances, just focus on Christ.  He has walking on water power for you. Focus on Christ & then answer what's impossible.  Don't let the wind & the waves hold you back.  Their just noise.

It's all good

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good (Gen. 50:20 NLT)

In life there are a lot of people & things trying to harm us.  It can make us frustrated, distracted, & worried but we have to remember this verse.  Those things & people can come against us but God will turn it for our good.  He will bring opportunities to spread His message through that trial.  Godmay connect you with someone you need to meet through that adversity.  He might give you a tremendous testimony through your struggle.  Man can come up with all kinds of plans against you, Satan can attack you, but God is going to bring good out of it.  They can't stop that.  No trial, struggle, disease, debt, or evil scheme can stop God.  So what's coming against you? Has someone done something to harm you?  Trust God to bring good out of it.  He knew about it before it happened & He knew the way through it.

Represent

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (Col. 3:17 NLT)

What are you doing today?  Whatever it is, are you planning on doing it as Christs representative or are you going to do good enough to get by?  When you're at work, are you His representative there?  When you're at the store, school, or out in town, are you His representative there? You are representing Him one way or another but the question is is if you're representation is making anyone else want to know your Lord & Savior. If its not, is it turning them away from wanting to know Christ?  The next question is is are you complaining or giving thanks to God the Father? It's hard to do both.  Today give it everything you've got.  You only get one opportunity at today.  Don't waste it.  Use it for Gods glory.  Use it to encourage, show love, & represent your Lord & Savior.  If you're representing the Most High God, don't give less than your best!

Still strong enough

I am as,strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, & I can still travel & fight as well as I could then (Joshua 14:11 NLT)

What a great attitude! That I think was one of Caleb's strengths, he trusted in Gods power.  He along with Joshua were the only two spies who thought they could go int the Promised Land that God had promised them.  Here he was elderly & wanted the land that had been promised to him, even though it was inhabited by giants.  But Caleb was not afraid because he knew God had promised it & God would give him the ability to do it.  There's a lesson to be learned there.  We need to have the attitude of Caleb.  Don't let age, giants, fears, disease,doubt, debt, or past detour you from what God had promised.  If God promised it, it's done.  Let that courage well up within you.  Those giants are no match for Almighty God!  He says "Enter the land, I have given you the victory!" What has God promised you?  If you don't know, pray &get in His word, He'll show you.  Then get a dose of Caleb's spirit & claim what God has promised you!

Tend my lambs

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to Him, "yes Lord You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend my lambs." (John 21:15 NLT)

So I want you to put yourself in Peters spot here.  You are sitting around a fire with your Lord & Savior Whoyou just denied three times & then comes the question.  "Do you love me?". He not only asks you once but three times & you say yes.   Then comes the command, "Tend My lambs." is He telling you that today?  Is He asking you "Do you love Me enough to help others & bring them to Me?" if He's asking you, what's your answer?  What are you doing to tend His lambs?  There are lambs who need to know the Shepherd.  Maybe you haven't denied Him like Peter did but the question & command still applies to all of us.  We need to be doing His work.  As we discussed last night, your love for Him requires action.  Who are the lambs God has given you to tend?

Are we satisfied

How foolish!  Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless? (James 2:20 NLT)

You cant do enough good deeds to receive salvation.  But if you are Gods child, good deeds should be flowing from you.  If you are serious about your love for Christ it will be your hearts desire to work for Him.  You will want others to have what you have.  You will want to share the joy & peace that you have.  You will want to lighten the load of someone else.  Your love for Christ was not meant to be bottled up.  It was meant to cause a change in you. It is meant to be shared.  If we will be doing Gods work, we, through Christ, can make the change.  We can be the Bible that people read.  People are more likely to listen to your witness if they see you sincerely working for Christ.  If we really want to change things,what are we doing for Christ to bring about that change.  Are we satisfied?  I hope not.  There are still a lot of people who need to know about Christ & we need to be reaching them.  Are you alright if someone you know doesn't come to know Christ?  I hope not.  There is still an open door so keep working!

Gods grace prevails over evil

God can pour on the blessings in astounding ways so that you're ready for anything & everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done (2Cor. 9:8 Message)

Today in Boston evil struck & it is hard to see Gods blessings.  My prayers are with all of those people & their families.  Just another reminder of how much we need God to move in our country & world.  I did however see God at work today. As we do here when faced with a crisis, people responded very heroically & selflessly to help others.  Even helping ones they didn't know.  I'm sure we will find out even more stories in the coming days.  God prepared those people & gave them the strength to be able to do those things.  God brings good out of evil.  Man did evil today but God will still pour out His blessings.  That's the nature of Gods grace.  It blesses us, equips us, protects us, heals us, & restores us.  Most importantly, it is always enough.  Even though a terrible thing happened today, Gods grace was still there.  Evil can't stop Gods grace!  It only makes it stronger.  God has equipped you.  He has more blessings for you.  What happened in Boston today should only make us want to work harder to do Gods work.  The world needs to understand Gods grace & experience it.  That's the real solution to the violence.

Waves of grace

Cry for help & you'll find it's grace & more grace.  The moment He hears, He'll answer.  (Is. 30:19 Msg)

Whats the problem or fear you're facing today?  It looks like a huge giant laughing at you & mocking you.  You look up at it thinking you don't have the strength to fight it.  This verse gives you the answer.  Cry out to the Most High God & He promises to hear you & answer you as soon as He hears.  Once He hears, He promises grace & more grace.  When grace shows up it causes a role reversal with you & that giant.  All of a sudden that menacing giant realizes it has already been defeated by Gods matchless grace.  Whatever that fear or problem is, it cannot stand against Gods grace.  It's just wave after wave of Gods grace flooding over that giant nor fear, lack, disease, or problem!  God has given us the victory!  Like we protect our children, God is even a far more powerful defender of His children.  Next time something comes against you, remind that giant Who you belong to & listen for the waves of grace to come rushing to your defense!

By My Spirit

Then he said to me, "This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Heavens Armies" (Zechariah. 4:6 NLT)

Turn on the news & it's all you hear about, wars, power struggles, wars of words, &on&on.  Everybody trying to prove they're stronger & pushing their agenda.  This verse says that change will come from the Holy Spirit.  Change will come from the Holy Spirit moving in our lives personally, the country, & the world.  We need to be praying for His Spirit to move.  We need to pray for His Spirit to move us.  The Holy Spirit lives within us as Christians to lead, guide, & direct us.  If we're seeking God His Spirit should be causing us to work & to be a difference.  If It's not moving you, you need to ask Him to stir the fire in you.  God is mightier than any force & if He moves in us & our country, we have not yet seen what can happen.  The "impossible" can happen.  Pray for God to move in you.  Pray for God to move in the country & the world.  He's just waiting on the invitation!

God must increase

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30 NASB)

This was John talking about Christ.  He was saying that his role was to become less while Christs role would become more prominent.  The same can be said today of us. We need to put our desires to the side & allow God to work His plan in our lives.  I don't know about you, but it seems like there continues to be more &more things to occupy my time.  My wife told me tonight, she thought Satan was trying to distract me.  If I'm not careful I start thinking about what I need to do & what I need to accomplish.  But it's not about me or you it's about Christ in us.  What does He want to accomplish through me & you? The more it's about you & me, the less that gets done.  This starts with each individual person.  We have to each one make the decision that we are putting Gods interests ahead of our own.  If we begin to do that, God can begin to work, His message will spread, & people will see God through us.  If we're to get people back into church & into a relationship with Christ, we have to show Him to people in our daily lives.  Ask God today to have more control of your life & ask Him what He needs to accomplish through you.

Seek Me

Then if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves & pray & seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sins & restore their land. (2Chr. 7:14 NLT)

Who would like their land restored.  Who would like to have Gods input on ow to do that.  In today's world there are "solutions" flying from all directions.  In reality, the only solution that matters is what  God says.  1) Humble ourselves & pray.  That means take time out of our busy day ask for forgiveness, & ask God to be involved in our land.  2) seek His face.  Really seek Him.  Make Him the most important thing throughout your day.  Put Him at the top & only thing on your to do list.  If you do, He'll take care of the rest.  3) Turn from our wicked ways.  Those are the things that go against Gods word.  We all have things personally that we need to clean up. And there are way too many things today that are socially acceptable that are far from acceptable to God.  If they're not acceptable to Him, they shouldn't be acceptable to us.  We need revival.  We need restoration.  We need to be praying.  We absolutely need to be seeking God!  Not pushing Him out but inviting Him in.  This country & our world needs Him!  He wants to be wanted.  It's up to each one of us to make that happen.  It's time for Christians & the church to quit playing at it & get serious about our relationship with Christ.  Revival & restoration are available if we do.  What happens if we don't?

Keep working

As long as the earth remains, there will be planting & harvest, cold & heat, summer & winter, day & night!  (Gen. 8:22 NLT)

O.K. so the earth is still here so that tells me we still have planting & harvesting to do.  That means there is still work to do.  We still have people to share Christ with.  We still have people to show Gods love to.  God doesn't expect us to just ride out the time or hold on to the ball.  He wants us to keep working until our job is finished.  So if you have wandered over to the sidelines of Christianity, get back in the game.  You don't play a game with half of your players & we need all of Christs followers to be doing their work.  Reach the ones God has given you to reach.  Help those God has given you to help. Encourage someone who needs encouraging.  God has given you something to do. If the farmer plants but doesn't harvest or tries to harvest without planting, there is no food to eat. You might be the one God is asking to plant or He might need you to harvest.  If you're not doing what God has asked you to do there's an important part missing.  Keep working!  There's a great harvest if we will all do our part!

You're not the only one

This is the account of Noah & his family.  Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, & he walked in close fellowship with Gos (Gen. 6:9 NLT)

Sometimes you might feel like you're the only person out there who is trying to live life like God has asked us to & the world is going to encourage you in that belief. But Noah really was the only one left at that time.  How discouraging would that be?  Then he is told to build an ark because it was going to flood when it had never rained.  And through all of this he walked in close fellowship with God. He didn't give up, he didn't complain & argue, but he stayed close to God.  What better place is there to be?  Because of his faithfulness, God protected him & his family. God blessed him & God gave the world a second chance, because of one person.  Now I'm going to tell you there are many more than one following Christ today & we need to stay in close fellowship with Him.  We need to follow Noah's example & don't quit.  Stand up, show Christs love, keep being faithful. Even if you were the only one, God would still have a work for you to do.  Look at it that you have an even greater opportunity to share Christ & that the world & people around you need it even more.  Even if for no other reason than Noah got a boat during the flood because he was faithful.  However, it's a better more productive reason to do it because of your love for Christ!

Ignore the "hypocrite" & meet God

Create in me a clean heart, O God & renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence & do not take away your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation & sustain me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways & sinners will be converted to You (Ps. 51: 10-13)

Today if you get the opportunity Togo to church, please take it.  Not everyone will have that chance. When you go, ignore the "hypocrite" in the other pew.  Don't worry about what someone else is wearing, who took your seat, ot your parking spot.  Don't fight on the way there. Don't get upset because the pastor spoke too long, & don't worry about who he is preaching to.  Just go to meet Christ, He's the reason you're supposed to be there anyway.  Ask God to create a clean heart in you & to renew your spirit to do His work.  Go expecting God to move I your life.  Go to be in Gods presence.  Go to worship the King of Kings. Get rid of all the distractions & excuses & get your focus back on Christ today.  Pray this passage over yourself today before you enter His house.  He wants willing, available people to do great things.  Why not you?

First love

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love (Rev. 2:4 NASB)

This was directed to the church at Ephesus but could be talking about some today.  They had high standards & were doing good works but Christ had a complaint with them.  He told them they had left their first love, which was Christ.  They thought they could do it on their own & left the Reason they should have been doing it all to begin with.  The world needs the church to get back to our First Love.  We can accomplish nothing without Him but we can accomplish everything with Him.  We need to find out from Him what He needs us to be doing.  Not so that people will look at us but so that people will look at Christ.  We aren't enough to make a change but Christ is.  We have to follow His example.  We love others because we love Him.  We can do all things THROUGH Him.  We are only effective if we stay with our First Love.  The world needs the church to be effective.  We are to be the examples.  We are to be showing Christ living in us.  We need to show the light in the darkness & do so because of our love for Jesus Christ.  So ask God to show you & the church if we are still with our first love.  Let Him know that He is your first love & let Him show you where He needs you.

It's for me

He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever He promises (Rom. 4:21 NLT)

I think most Christians would tell you that they believe God can do what He says He can do.  The percentage might go down a little if you asked them if God was going to do that for them because for some reason it is easier to see God doing something for someone else than for us.  But I think the biggest problem with believing is that we don't know what Gods promises are & that they are for us. I want you to understand , the promises are for you. Some are what God will do for unbelievers if they wii accept Him as Lord & Savior but if you are His child, you have access to hundreds of promises.  Search them out & claim them, God put them there for you! We need to make things with God & His word personal. It's not just meant for someone else, it's meant for (insert your name here).  God loves (insert your name here).  As I've said before, God is God.  If that is true He can do anything. If that's true, we just need to know that He can & wants to do them for us.  Today find your promise, claim it, & watch God work!

Christs ambassadors

So we are Christs ambassadors;  Godis making His appeal through us.  We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" (2 Cor. 5:20 NLT)

So we are the ones God uses to make His appeal.  So here's my question, how are we doing?  Have we gotten too tied up with our crazy, busy lives to plead Gods case?  Are Christians full of passion for God or are we going through the motions?  Is our influence growing?  I think Satan is doing a good job distracting us.  I think a lot of times we wait for people to come into the church doors instead of living Gods message & reaching out to them.  There is no better message than the one we've been given to share & we need to get back to it. Our top thing on our to do list should be sharing Christ & His love.  With all the problems today, we definitely need to come back to God.  We need Him! He is the One who will turn things around!  Allow God to speak through you.  God has a revival to bring & He needs ambassadors who are willing to be used to spread His message!  What greater honor could there be than to share Christ with someone?  It's going to be more important than anything else on our to do list.