FREEDOM

Scripture Job 31 ; Job 32 ; Galatians 5 ; Galatians 6

Galatians 5: ¹³My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love.

Observation:  Somehow there is this great disconnect between who we really are who we are supposed to be in the eyes of God.

Application:  God has set us free to live in the world but not be a part of it.  That is really hard to do because with every breath we take the world wants to tell us how to take it in and how to let it out.  So, what does this freedom mean that Paul says we were chosen for, which is then qualified with ‘you can’t use it to do anything you want.’  Is that freedom?  It is a hard thing to think about…freedom.

For me, freedom (the freedom that God has given me through Christ Jesus) is the ability to live in the world but not be of the world.  In other words, I can be right where I am today and still know that God loves me and has given me the promise of eternity through putting my faith in Jesus who has paid the price for my sin (past, present, and future).  Does that give me license to live anyway I want?  NO it does not.  It does however give me the freedom to have a relationship with God and my neighbor—whoever my neighbor might be.  I have the freedom to help in matters of justice, peace, and a bunch of other things that happen to people-- to make their lives better and to give my witness as to the peace I have found in Jesus.  Sometimes I will have to use words.

Freedom is a powerful thing, especially when it is given by God.

Prayer:  My prayer today is that God enables me to share my freedom with some who is locked in the chains of the world. 

Yieldedness: With the help of God’s Holy Spirit, I will become a key and not a lock.

Paul's Wonderful Testimony: Can I Claim It?

^{Galatians 2:20}I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. ²¹I don't turn my back on God's undeserved kindness.

Scripture Job 28 ; Job 29 ; Galatians 1 ; Galatians 2

Observation: Paul spoke very boldly of his faith.

Application:  I wish to live my life as Paul lived his life.  I wish to be quick to say what Paul has said to the Church at Galatia—“I have died, but Christ lives in me…I don’t turn my back on God’s underserved kindness.”

It is hard to live this life where I don’t turn my back on God’s grace.  Just yesterday I found myself angry at someone who was probably just doing their job as best as they could.  I ordered a cup of coffee in the middle of the afternoon at a fast food restaurant and of course the attendant had to stop what they were doing and make a fresh pot of coffee just for me.  Well, I paid for the coffee and went back to my vehicle to transfer the coffee from the Styrofoam cup to my on cup.  As I was trying to get the lid off the Styrofoam cup, the cup was so full that the hot coffee was spilling on my fingers…Well, I have to say at this point I did not resemble the image of God…unless God was really mad and upset and God’s hand was on fire from hot coffee.  My sweet wife called me on it and reminded me of who I am. 

She reminded me that that person might have been disgruntled at me because I disrupted her routine, but that probably I needed not to think that way.  I needed to deal with “what was” spilled coffee and a blistered finger and pray that God would bless the person that poured that coffee and me as well.

Prayer:  So my prayer for today is this:  God please bless that person that poured that coffee cup way to full and bless my wife for being more of your image at that moment than myself and forgive me for my words and thoughts and remind me that I have died and now you live in me and help me not to turn my back of your loving kindness…Love Stephen

Yieldedness:  I will be more careful when I transfer coffee from a Styrofoam cup to my person favorite coffee cup.

Where Does the Understanding Hide?

  Job 20; Mark 3; Mark 4 (Contemporary English Version) 

^{Mark 4:12}The reason is,

"These people will look

and look, but never see.

They will listen and listen,

but never understand.

If they did,

they would turn to God,

and he would forgive them.

Jesus is explaining why he uses stories (or parables as we call them) as tools for teaching.  Jesus understands folk pretty well I would say.
Some years ago, I don't really remember when, I went on a spiritual journey.  It was 72 hours of hearing talks from clergy and lay folks about priorities, grace, piety, Christian actions and a bunch of other stuff.  I have to say that when I left that week-end I was fired up.  I had been in the ministry a few years and because of the notes I had taken and all the chocolate I had eaten, I was going to change the church as it was known in those days.  Me and God and few more folks that I was sure felt the same way I did was going to change the face of the earth, renew it as the prayer says and bring glory to the creator.
Well, that enthusiasm lasted a while and then I realized that Jesus is right:  "people look and look and never see..." and so on.
I have to say though that I am still somewhat on that "Spiritual High" when I see folks come alive with ideas and realize that God is calling them into ministry of some sort where the neighbors will be loved like we love ourselves and that above all God will be glorified and loved as well.
I think of those seeds in this parable of the sower in Mark 4.  The seeds that are sown in so many places on Sunday mornings from the choir loft and from the pulpit, when children and youth are serving in worship, when visitors are welcomed "in", when folks take time from their busy schedules to invite a neighbor to come and worship and experience the presence of God that they feel, and many other ways that seeds are sown.  Like after the enthusiastic worship is over and it time to go to Sunday School (oh I wish there was another name to call it like discipleship or learning to follow Jesus Time) when folks come to learn how that the life and times of Jesus are still relevant to our life and times today and even more so.  I could go on and on...

I guess that I am desiring to find a new way to do an old thing.  Its that wrong?  Is it wrong to try and find a way to get folks to open up and take hold of the Good News and let it change their lives the way it has changed mine.  Well, maybe not exactly like it changed mine, but change it a new way that just fits who they are.  I see a lot of folks who leave worship on Sunday morning to go else where and somehow I know they have not been fed the whole meal.  Oh, they enjoyed the servings they have had but the stuff that sustains them have been left out.

The seed gets sown but I guess there is no way to control where the seeds land and whether they grow or not--is that what I am saying--well, I wonder.  I wonder if there is a plan that will fit everyone who is the ground on which the seeds are sown.  I wonder if there is a way to get a seed to take root and grow on solid rocks.  I wonder if there is enough fertilizer for the seeds that have fell into the thorns to some how overtake the thistles and flourish.  I wonder.  How about you do you wonder?

Have blest day, brosteve

 

My Redeemer Lives

Scripture Job 19 ; Mark 1 ; Mark 2

Job 19:²⁵ I know that my redeemer lives, 

and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

Observation :  Even Job trusted God and was obedient to the end.

Application:  What a wonderful statement of faith that Job pronounced to his doubtful friends and to me as well today.  "I know that my redeemer lives,..."

In this world today, with the Church going through change, with the economy a wreck, people losing jobs and becoming homeless, the political world in question on every avenue; with every thing the world says that makes the world go 'round amiss...there is one thing that is sure--my redeemer lives. 

These are comforting words to anyone who knows Christ, but to a lost and dying world these words are empty. 

Let us today who know that the redeemer lives find a way to share that good news with a lost and dying world and if necessary let us use words.

Prayer:  My prayer today is that God will use my witness to bring someone to Christ and that I will be able to encourage others who follow Christ to let use their witness as well for the same purpose.  AMEN!

Yieldedness: I will remember that "my redeemer lives"

Deliverance

Journal 10/20/2010

S.  Job 6, 7, 8; Acts 12

O.  Here is Job, a righteous man wondering why God is letting all this happen to him. Then there is Peter who has been freed from the chains that bind him in prison.

A.  From time to time I wonder why I am having to go through the pains of life.  I have always tried to live right before God, the community, my children, my spouse.  There have been times when I acted unwisely and made some stupid decisions, but those have been paid for or are being paid for as I write—and that is OK. It is the deliverance that I have trouble with mostly.  Trying to figure out why it is that God has sent some money or an idea that would make the day go easier or solve a problem that stands in the way of progress—that is the real dilemma.  Here is Peter in Jail one minute and free the next and it all at God’s hand.  People of the same mind who believed the Good News were praying constantly, God hears the prayers and sees that God’s will can be done and Peter is released and in the end the price is paid.  In the end the price is always paid, but it seems for me the price was paid in the beginning.

P.  My prayer today is of thanksgiving.  God thank you for loving me even when I don’t deserve it and I am unlovable—Be with me today in every step I take, every move I make, every word I speak, every decision I make—lead me, guide me, correct me, comfort me.  Be with all that it is my duty to pray for today and bring healing, comfort, grace and peace to all who need it.  AMEN!

Y.  How will I yield today?  I will look to God and ask the questions of my heart and listen for the answers to come from on high.

I will Listen

I will Listen

 I know I haven't been here in a while.  I appologize but I am back now for a while.  Blessings to you, Brosteve

Scripture Nehemiah 13 ; Malachi 1 ; Malachi 2 ;

 Acts 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Observation
The greatest power of all is at our fingertips and the tips of our tongues--Prayer.
Application
I suppose the question is: What do we pray for? In my mind this morning, I can see the brokenness of our system (our Church, well God's Church, the Church Universal). So I pray in the brokenness because I am part of it. I don't have the answers or even the words to say to God for the feelings that are in my heart in this ministry I have been called too. Perhaps I must depend upon the Holy Spirit to utter those sounds God needs to hear and then I must be prepared to listen to the answer--whatever it may be and be ready to act upon it (God's answer).
Prayer 
I pray today for God's Church and that God will call us in the direction that will bring glory to God and cause the kingdom to be built in God's will.
Yieldedness 
I will listen for a Word from God.

Repentance

Acts 3:19 (NIV)
¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,




I think I need to take time to repent more often--time to turn toward the God who loves me even when I am unlovable.

There are days in my life when I am unlovable (at least that is how is seems to me).  It is a day when I am depressed and nothing is going the way I had visioned it would be--you've had those days haven't you?  Sure, we all have them.  The question is what do we do about them?  Do we just let it go on and hope that it will pass?  Do we stop and fall on our knees before God and pray for complete healing or at least a better outlook?  How do we handle those unlovable days?

I wish I had the answer to all those questions--but I do not.  I just know that I am a sinner in need of a savior, a redeemer, a friend, a healer, a comforter, a peace maker, a crutch or a prop--the trouble is I have all that in my Lord Jesus through the work of God's Holy Spirit.  I suppose today, this minute, I need to turn and pray that God's love will cover me and through God's grace I will be saved and God will give me the strength to go forward for God's glory.