The excuse

Galatians 5:22-26

This morning I woke to a speaker that said we could love with out restraint. We have God living in us and because of his presence we have the capacity to love without restraint. I had to look at myself once again and notice that I give myself an excuse for not living that way. I say, "I am human, not god; thus I am not perfect enough to live that way."

Well, this is true. I am not God. I am not perfect and I will not live a God inspired love walk without restraint. But that is not the point. You see, the point is that the possibility is there. That maybe we all live below the mark because we give ourselves this excuse.

I am not suggesting we will live a perfect love walk. What I want to say is that maybe we should allow the Spirit of God to have His way in our hearts more often. Not turn ourselves over to selfishness so often. Maybe say..."Father here I am, use me. I surrender my heart and soul to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control...Your nature that already lives in me."

Yes, this requires us to grow up and to stop with the ME attitude. The selfish, self-centered me, myself and I attitude. But then is that not the goal; to be more like Him. That can only come if we surrender our lives and let Him be God in us.

I, at this age, have regrets for not being more mature in Him, for not being more loving in years past, for being too selfish in relationships. In fact, I think that we all would notice a marked difference in all our relationships if we allowed Him to have His way more often. I do know that when we walk in Him and follow His ways we experience less pain. His way is the best way.

No more excuses.

Samson

Judges16

Remember this guy. He had super-human strength. A gift from God. As long as he did not cut his hair he kept the gift.... BUT... poor Samson fell in love and turned his life over to Delia. She, a wicked person out to destroy this child of God, managed to accomplish her goal; or did she.

I heard this week at bible study that God answers prayer His way. We ask, hope, believe but His answer is not always what we want or think. However, it is always answered in a way that gives God the most glory. Isn't that what we want for our lives? We want God to receive all the glory for our lives, correct? In fact our lives, in our minds, are not a success until He receives the glory. It is a built in desire that comes from hearts surrendered to Him.

This Samson story is a little like that thought. He gave his life over to Delia and she had her way and put him in a painful place. Blind and in a prison. His hair grew while in prison and at the end of chapter 16 he comes back to God and ask for help. He does not ask that he be spared but that God would use him once more and be glorified. God was glorified for it says that Samson in his last act on earth did more for God than he had his entire life.

This encourages me because it tells me that regardless of our mistakes we can turn to God anytime, turn our lives back over to Him and He will rescue, deliver and use our lives again...BIG TIME.

Lost?

Do you feel lost sometimes? Do you wonder how you got where you are and why you even decided to go there? Do you want to curl up in a blanket and close your eyes in hopes that when you open them again the mess around you will be gone? Do you want that slate clean so you could start over again? Are you confused about truth, life and yourself?

Well, join the crowd. These are things we all feel more than once in life. The answer is found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who is God. These feelings come when we decide to be our own God. We fall away, get into a mess, get lost and confused when we decide to be our own god. (By the way, that new religion that Oprah is endorsing is based on everyone being their own god.)

Now, let me point you in the right direction, the path, the way. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father (God) except by way of me." What does this mean?

It means we have sinned. Jesus died for those sins. We repent of those sins. God forgives us because of what Jesus did. We trust in His sacrifice personally to make us righteous. We invite Him into our lives as Lord (boss). We then are no longer lost, wondering and trying to make sense out of life because His wisdom now lives in us to shows us the way.

If you have lost your way, turn your heart once again toward Jesus and repent. Receive His words, truth and life. Enjoy.

These thought come to me today because of Proverbs 2. It talks about listening to wisdom, wisdom only found in God (not the Oprah show.) He left us a guide book, the Bible. In this passage it calls us to search for wisdom as if it were a treasure. Wisdom always points to the creator, God. We fear (respect and reverence) Him and experience the knowledge of Him as we read scripture and receive (believe) truth.

In plain simple terms it means this: When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we escape the result of sin. We find the right path (Jesus is the way). Because of Jesus we are the righteousness of God, we are blameless and we bow down before Him our Lord and follow Him. This is wisdom

Do you feel lost? Look to Him, Jesus the Christ.

Read all of Proverbs 2 today if you have a minute.

Bottom Line

Ephesians 1:1-10

• We were dead in sin
• We followed the ways of the world
• We followed satan and disobeyed God
• We gratified the cravings of our sinful nature
• We were objects of wrath
• We were dead in sin

But because of His His great Love for us, God, who is rich in mercy:

• Made us alive
• Saved us
• Raised us up
• Seated us with Christ
• Seated us in the heavenly realm
• Seated us in Christ
• Showed incomparable rich grace and kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -and this not from yourselves,-it is the gift of God-not by works., so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph.2:8-10)

Disobedience

Psalms 107:13,15 Proverbs 1:5-8

Doing things our way always gets us into trouble all the time...right? It is called disobedience. Lack of trust is disobedience, not doing what we know to be right is disobedience and living in fear and worry is disobedience We know all this yet because of our human frailties we live in this condition most of the time. Is it selfishness, pride, lust or is it all of them? Regardless, it happens daily. So why does God put up with us? Because He loves us anyway and Christ died to cover these sins of disobedience. Now that is not an open invitation to continue in sin. It is an encouragement to causes us to repent and try again. Why? We have been changed and any other path would leave us empty. Our hearts have been changed. There is no other way for us.

As I read these verses this morning I noticed that thread (disobedience) in my own heart. In Psalms 107 it talks about how Gods people continue to do the wrong thing; but the moment they call out to him and repent He rescues them... saves them from their distress. When He does this for us do we praise Him and say thank you?

Then in Proverbs I read how He will give us wisdom if we just ask, believe and not be double minded. Now I know all of you probably knew what double minded meant. I did not till today. It means that when God gives us this wisdom we are to act on it and do what He says. It is not an option to think about it or to decide for our selves if we want to do what wisdom tells us. We are to do it! Well I don't know about you but I have been double minded too many times and wondered why I could not hear from God. If we are double minded then it also tells us we will receive nothing from the Lord and we will be unstable in all we do.

It all Boils down to disobedience...right? If we don't listen and respond; if we just blatantly go our own way, it all boils down to the same thing. Disobedience.

One God

Psalm 119:114-117

Today we hear and many of us follow a type of doctrine that opposes and denies God. It is another one of those sheep clothing things. Yet it is as deadly as the wolf. Ever seen a wolf. They are almost the size of a small pony. They can take down large animals when the pack takes on the chase. They kill.

This false doctrine I speak of can kill, yet seems as innocent as a lamb. It is so natural in our modern language and world. It leads everyone into selfish living. We feel so at home in this climate that selfishness become the norm and anyone who is not clued in to its smoothness is to be pitied indeed. It sound like this:

• If it makes me feel good it is right
• If it makes me happy it is right
• If it gives me what I want it is right
• If it delights my ears it is right

Notice the main character in these phrases...ME. What a small package we deliver when we only deliver wonderful us to the world as we fulfill selfish driven desires. This is a shallow doctrine. Why? Because we become God of our own lives and eventually God of other peoples lives.

Do we know the future? Do we know all and have all power? Can we be everywhere a the same time? Of course not but God can. Why would we even want the job?

• He has a plan for our lives...we follow
• He lead us beside still waters...we follow
• He delivers our us from sin...we follow
• He has a place prepared for us...we follow
• He asks us to trust and obey...we follow

You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word. Away from me you evildoers, that I may keep the commands of my God! Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live; Do not let my hopes be dashed. Uphold me, and I will be delivered;I will always have regard for your decrees. Psalms

Hodge Podge

This morning for my usual devotional I went to the Worship channel and the scriptures to create the atmosphere most conducive for me personally to listen. The message did not come to me in the usual manner. It came as a Hodge Podge of information that took a minute to assimilate. I will relate it to you as it came to me for fun. Since the word of God touches each one of us differently depending on our circumstances, I know it will speak to you. I just do not know how.

• Set your sights on heaven
• Eliminate the security blankets in you life.
• Serve God

It would be impossible, I know, to hear how each of you understood these thoughts but I would have enjoyed hearing them. This is how they ministered to me.

Set our sight on heaven for we are only passing through. Our real life is in Christ and at best we are ambassadors here for a short time to lead others to their eternal home, a home He has prepared for those who love Him and have received Him as Lord and Savior.

Eliminate the security blankets in our lives. So many things are out there to promise security, love, value, acceptance but none of them can come through. Everything this life offers is temporary and has very little value in relationship to our eternal home. What are the security blankets? Anything we depend on for our happiness, value, security, love or acceptance. God is our only security blanket. I often reach out to the wrong thing. Do you?

Serve God. That is different for everyone. The common denominator is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If our site is set on heaven and we know that we are to point others to Him then anything that he calls us to that accomplishes this goal is service.

Hope you enjoyed our Hodge Podge