Religion versus Relationships

Leave a comment

“Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church.”1

God isn’t into religion. He’s into relationships. That is, he not only wants us to have a close, loving, warm and intimate relationship with himself but also with each other.

Intimacy, however, can be scary. It means being open, honest and vulnerable—not just with our thoughts and ideas, but much more so with our feelings, failures, and fears—not only with God but with at least one or a few other trusted friends.

What’s scary is that if you see me and know me as I really am on the inside, you may not like me. Worse still, if I know me as I really am on the inside, I may not like me either!

However, only to the degree that I am open and honest can I ever be known for who I truly am. Furthermore, only to the degree that I am known, can I ever feel loved. If I wear a mask, you may like my mask, but I will never feel loved because my mask is not me. Only real people can experience real love. And we’re not talking about the body-building TV ads that promise real results for real people. These ads are about as phony as they can get. Being real has to do with the inner self and nothing whatsoever to do with the external self.

May God help each of us to be real and become the loving persons he planned for us to be.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You that You are not into rigid religion but into loving relationships and that You want a loving, intimate relationship with me. Please help me to be honest with myself, with a few others and most of all with You. Help me to stop pretending and be real and in so doing become more and more like Jesus in every way. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Ephesians 4:15-16 (TLB).

<:))))><

Achieving Good Success

Leave a comment

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”1

When Moses died, God appointed Joshua to be the new leader of Israel. One of the very first things God did was to give Joshua a goal—a goal to claim and conquer the Promised Land. God spelled out the northern, southern, eastern and western borders so the goal was very specific. Joshua knew exactly what he needed to do.

God also told Joshua that he had given him, and the ancient Israelites this land—but they still had to go and conquer it. It wasn’t handed to them on a silver platter. They had to battle every inch of the way to conquer it. However, had God not given the land to them, they wouldn’t have been able to conquer it.

Furthermore, God promised Joshua good success providing he and the people fully obeyed all the directions and laws God had given to them through Moses.

It has been noted that “success is the ability to embrace a worthwhile goal and then employ all of your powers for the achievement of that goal.” I’m sure Joshua would have agreed with this definition of success.

As we shared yesterday, God has a specific plan and goal for you and me too. It’s up to us to seek God to discover what that plan and goal is. And then it’s up to us, with God’s help, to “take action and go get it!”

Any worthwhile goal will also be a challenge for us to fulfill. God isn’t going to hand it to us on a silver platter. However, as God promised to be with Joshua and help him, he will also be with us and help us; that is, providing we “employ all of our powers to achieve that goal” and live and work in harmony with God’s will and obey his Word, the Bible. Only then will we, too, have good success. Of that we can be confident.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You that as You promised to be with Joshua You will also be with me as long as I live in harmony with Your Word and Your will. Show me specifically what You want me to be and do, and give me the wisdom, faith, courage, and determination to work to fulfill that goal, so that I, too, will experience Your blessing and good success. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Joshua 1:7 (NIV).

<:))))><

Pressing Toward the Goal

Leave a comment

The Apostle Paul wrote, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.”1

According to Peter Wagner, “Goal setting is a risk. One of the most comfortable things in the world is to have no goals, because then there can be no failure. It is equally comfortable to define your goals in terms of what you happen to be doing at any given time. If you shoot first, then draw the target around the bullet hole, you’ll never miss the bull’s eye. If someone looks later, he might even call you a good marksman.” Some people have developed this technique very well. Their goals are set more by their own inclinations than by carefully formulated biblical priorities.

Having a clearly defined goal is the first step towards the success of anything. However, according to motivational specialists only three percent of people have a major goal for their life. Without this we are like a rudderless ship. Instead of our setting the direction of our life, we let the winds and tides of the times take us where they will. As someone has said facetiously, “Blessed be he who aims at nothing for he shall surely hit it!”

As with the Apostle Paul, God has a specific goal for each one of us. It is our responsibility to discover what that goal is and work towards achieving it. And as Paul said, “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.”

“Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You that You have a specific purpose and goal for my life. Please help me to discover what that is and give me the desire, courage, and direction to help me work towards fulfilling that goal. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Philippians 3:13-15 (NIV).

<:))))><

How to Get God’s Leading

Leave a comment

“I being in the way, the LORD led me.”1

I have read that on one occasion talk show host, Larry King, asked Bill Gates of Microsoft fame what his secret of success was. Gates answered, “I was in the right place at the right time. I caught the vision of where the computer industry was going. And I took action.”

This was also true of Abraham’s servant when Abraham sent him on a mission to find a wife for his (Abraham’s) son, Isaac. The servant committed his task to the Lord, sought His guidance, took action and “got going.” As he did his part, God did His and led him to the perfect bride. As the servant put it, “I being in the way, the Lord led me.”

Somebody with tongue-in-cheek said, “There are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree. You can sit on an acorn and wait or you can climb to the top of the tree.”

God has a plan and purpose for the life of every one of us. It’s our responsibility to seek God and discover what that plan is. And then, we can sit on “the acorn” and wait for that purpose to be fulfilled or we can take action and get going. True, there are times when we need to wait on the Lord to discover His purpose, but once we know what it is, it’s up to us to take action. As we are in the way, God will lead us too—just as He led Abraham’s servant so long ago.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for having a plan and purpose for my life. Help me to discover what it is, and take action. May I also be able to say, ‘I being in the way, the LORD led me!’ Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Abraham’s servant (Genesis 24:27).

<:))))><

Trapped Behind an Open Door

Leave a comment

“How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord [Jesus], was confirmed to us by those who heard him.”1

One Sunday I was having lunch in a restaurant where a humming bird had flown in through an open door and couldn’t find its way out. It flew to the highest window and was frantically trying to escape through the glass. The more it tried—and failed—the harder it worked at doing the same thing.

Little did it realize that a very simple way of escape lay one yard/meter below it—through a wide-open door.

It could see quite well but was trapped by its own blindness to the way of escape.

Fortunately one of the staff was able to climb on a ladder, caught the bird in a box and set it free. We all felt so good about its rescue that we applauded.

But how many people in today’s world are struggling in a vain attempt to save themselves—spiritually—but are also trapped by their own blindness to the way of escape God has provided for their total and free salvation?

Would that we Christians would care about these lost souls all around us as much as the patrons cared about a “trapped” bird in a restaurant.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for providing a way of escape from the penalty and judgment of my sin through the giving of Your Son, Jesus, by sending Him to die in my place on the cross so You could freely forgive me and give me the gift of eternal life in Heaven forever with You. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

For help: Click on #2 below for the article: “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian—without having to be religious” or on http://tinyurl.com/8glq9

1. Hebrews 2:3 (NIV).

<:))))><

Marvels of Creation

Leave a comment

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”1

Pastor Ron Clarke from Tasmania, Australia, wrote: “One evening at dusk I was looking out of my window towards the sea when a huge flock of birds appeared, almost like a black cloud—there must have been thousands. They were traveling from west to east parallel with the coast. Then suddenly it happened. Not a few of them, not some of them, but every single one of them instantly changed direction and flew on a different course.

“We human beings think we have perfected communication. But those birds didn’t have two-way radio yet they knew precisely at what split second in time to change course and in what direction to fly.

“These birds, Shearwaters or Mutton Birds, live on the islands in Bass Strait off the north coast of Tasmania. Every year these birds migrate to the North Pacific and spend summer around the Aleutians. As the northern winter approaches, the Shearwaters fly back to their annual breeding ground on the Tasmanian islands and will go to the same nest and, give or take a day or two for adverse weather conditions en route, will arrive on that same nest on a given day.”

Think, too, of a million billion other marvels that surround us every day on the earth below and in the heavens above.

Did these all happen by chance? Or is there a Master Designer of the entire universe and all that is therein? For me it would take a whole lot more faith (or presumption) to believe that everything in the universe happened by chance.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for the marvels of your creation. I choose to believe that You are the Great Creator who created all things great and small—including all mankind—and I thank You that You love us devotedly one and all. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

Note: See “Marvels of Creation” at: www.actsweb.org/marvels_creation.php

1. Psalm 8:3-9 (NIV).

<:))))><

Political Correctness Oxymoron

Leave a comment

“In the temple courts he [Jesus] found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’”1

One thing is for sure: Jesus was never politically correct. He always stood for what was right and for truth—never for that which was expedient, popular or expected. As Mark Batterson said, “He wasn’t afraid of offending Pharisees; touching lepers; washing feet; defending prostitutes; or befriending tax collectors.”

In many ways, political correctness is destroying us! It allows a secular and often godless society to squeeze us into its mold. Besides “political correctness” is an oxymoron if ever there was one. There’s nothing correct about it. It’s really political expediency in order to get one’s own way, to get votes, to be a crowd pleaser, to avoid criticism, or for whatever other manipulative false motive.

Furthermore, if we in the West don’t wake up and smell the “gunpowder” of radical Islam which is out to destroy us, our insane political correctness WILL destroy us. Had Jesus been politically correct, we would still be lost in our sins without hope and without eternal life.

You may recall how William Wilberforce fought the battle for twenty years to end the slave trade in Great Britain. He was hated. He was threatened. He was despised. He was ridiculed, but he knew what was right and he fought for this and for the truth until he won and saw the wretched slave trade in England stopped. Wilberforce was not politically correct either. As a result he helped change his world.

We who claim to be believers in God and followers of Jesus Christ also need to abandon this political correct nonsense that is an integral part of today’s postmodern society for whom “tolerance, not truth, is absolute.”

Only truth is eternal. In the long run it will win. Always.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please deliver me from the sin of being politically correct for all the wrong motives. Give me the courage, and help me always in all ways to stand for and battle for truth and that which is right in Your eyes. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. John 2:14-16 (NIV).

<:))))><

Discovering Your Life-Purpose

Leave a comment

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”1

In seminars I have asked hundreds of attendees how many believe that God has a purpose for their life. Almost every hand is raised. But then, when I ask how many know what their God-given life purpose is, only a scant few hands are raised. How sad that so few make the commitment to discover their life purpose. How sadder to think that we have lived without ever having discovered—let alone fulfilled—our God-given life purpose.

We serve God by serving people—and we serve people by developing and using our God-given natural and spiritual gifts. Wrapped up in these two principles one discovers his or her God given life purpose.

As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.”

No matter what your life purpose is, if it is God’s will, there will always be a way to fulfill it no matter how great the challenge. Think of what Wilma Rudolph, Olympic Gold Medalist said, “My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to discover my God-given life purpose, get well-trained for it, and with your help dedicate my life to fulfilling it. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 32:8 (NSB).

<:))))><

Has God Said?

Leave a comment

“Now the serpent [Satan, the devil] was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”’ And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”1

Some churches today, or at least some church leaders—wanting to be politically correct—are approving of ordaining homosexual pastors. In so doing, they are totally ignoring God’s Word that indeed has said: “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.”2

What these church leaders are doing is no different than what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden when God allowed them to be tested to see if they would willingly follow Him or choose to go their own way.

God made it very clear to Adam and Eve that they could eat of every tree in the entire Garden of Eden except for just one tree. Enter Satan. Wanting to gravely harm the apex of God’s creation, Satan sought to sow doubt into Eve’s mind by saying, “Has God said?” Tragically, Eve, then Adam, bought into Satan’s deceit and ate of the forbidden fruit. What Adam and Eve did was set themselves up above God—usurping His authority—making themselves the judge between God and Satan and chose to believe and follow Satan. This is when sin and evil entered the human race.

What these “politically correct” church leaders are doing today is exactly the same as what Adam and Eve did. They, too, are placing themselves above God and usurping His authority. God HAS indeed said that homosexuality is a detestable sin and the reason it is detestable to God is because it is damaging to those whom he loves. To ignore God’s Word and go against it is to put one’s self above God—usurping His authority—believing that you know better than He does. This is an extremely dangerous path to follow because it will, in the end, reap extremely damaging results.

Remember, too, regarding any sin, God HAS also said, “For the wages of sin is death3 [which means spiritual death that is eternal separation from a Holy God in the place God’s Word calls Hell]. Fortunately, however, as God is a loving God, He also said, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”3

We ignore God’s Word to our peril. However, the good news is that God can freely give you and me the gift of forgiveness and eternal life because in His eternal love for us, He gave His very own Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cruel Roman cross to pay the just penalty for all of our sins. All we need to do is genuinely confess to God that we are sinners, believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died to pay the just penalty for our sins, ask God for His forgiveness, and accept Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior.

For help to do this be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian—without having to be religious” at: www.actsweb.org/christian. Be sure and do this today.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for your Word, the Holy Bible, with its instructions not only for this life, but also for life after life. Help me never to usurp Your authority by disregarding Your Word and going my own way. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Genesis 3:1-3 (NKJV).

2. Leviticus 18:22.

3. Romans 6:23 (NKJV).

<:))))><

What Can I Even Begin to Do?

Leave a comment

“So the Lord said to him [Moses], ‘What is that in your hand?’”1

In response to a Daily Encounter on the subject of discovering one’s God-given life purpose, a subscriber whom I shall name “Janet” (not her real name) e-mailed me, saying, “I am disabled. I can’t drive and am homebound. I can barely take care of myself; so what can my purpose be? I have multiple fractures of my spine and could go on with all my surgeries. What can I even begin to do?” Following is my reply:

“Dear Janet, I am very saddened to hear of your condition. This has to be a terrible challenge. However, here is a possible suggestion. Because you have an e-mail address and can at least send e-mail messages, tell God that you are available for Him to use and ask Him to use you to be an encourager of others via sending positive e-mail messages, or to give you a ministry using your computer and e-mail. Also, you could have a wonderful prayer ministry and be greatly used by God in this area.

“For simple and practical ideas that you could use in a personal ministry, please check out this website at: https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power_invite.php. God could certainly use you in this ministry as a People Power for Jesus Partner to reach others with the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Here is a suggested prayer that you could pray at the beginning of every day: “Dear God, today I commit and trust my life and way to you. Oh that you would bless me wonderfully. Please be with me in everything I do. Greatly expand my Christian borders, and keep me from all evil, harm and disaster. Also, I am available again today. Please make me usable and use me to be an effective witness for Jesus and to be ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I have contact with, whether it be in person, through an email, a letter, or via the telephone. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name. Amen.”

I have been praying this prayer every morning since my youth, and plan on praying it every morning for the rest of my life. Nobody is more amazed than I am in how God has faithfully answered this prayer over so many years. If you will make yourself available to God for Him to use and genuinely want Him so to do, I can guarantee that God will use you to be a wonderful blessing to the lives you touch.

When God called Moses to lead the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, Moses didn’t know how he was going to do the job; so God simply told him to use what he had in his hand. That’s how God uses each one of us … He calls us to use what He has already given to us and what we already have.

My suggested prayer for today, for every Daily Encounter subscriber, is the prayer that I suggested for Janet to pray.

1. Exodus 4:2 (NKJV).

<:))))><

Just another WordPress site