Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven,whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. Psalms 32:1-2 NLT
I know how you feel sometimes. I do. I've been there with you. I understand you. You're not alone.
Sometimes you've wished you could change something you said or did. You wish you could go back in time, right to the moment where you knew you could choose or refuse to do something you would later regret. You wish you weren't like you are, that it came easier to choose right and refuse wrong.
I know how you feel sometimes. I've been there with you. I understand you. You're not alone. But you and I have the hope of finally being happy. This is how.
Admit it, or remember that you've already admitted it.
What are we admitting, and to whom are we admitting it?
We are admitting to God that we have sinned, confessing our sin without any excuses.
That's all we have to do, or all we have to remember doing if we've already done it.
God forgives you when you confess your sins.
Jesus paid the penalty you and I deserve, which is death and hell.
The Spirit sets us free from our past and gives us hope for a beautiful future.
When God forgives, He forgets forever, as if it never happened, as if you are a totally new person, because in fact, you are. When you believed in Jesus, the old you with all those regrets died with Jesus, and a new you, the new you, the true you, was reborn as a son or daughter of God.
Forget with God what you were and what you've said and done. The old you died with Jesus 2000 years ago. You're now free. Free to love God and be loved by God. Free to follow His Spirit from now on.
If you don't feel free, say this prayer with me:
God, I've said and done things I can't take back, that I regret. These are the things I've done:
______________________
Please forgive me for all that I've said and done that displeased you or hurt others. I trust that Jesus died in my place for all that I've ever done wrong, and I accept that You punished Him instead of me. I accept Your Spirit inside of me to now lead me. Thank You for forgiving and forgetting my sins. Let Satan and every demon's accusations be silenced. Amen.
God loves you, and so do I.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
How to wait for God's power in your life (Part 2)
Jesus tells his followers to wait for God's power. The purpose of God's power is to do God's work. What is God's work for you? It's the work that you already do. Unless you are a criminal, and thus not a child of God, the work you are doing is the work He wants for you, according to the apostle Paul.
Paul said to stay in the situation you were in when you became a believer unless God gives you a way out of that situation. For example, if you were teacher when you became a believer, you should remain a teacher, but now you should teach in God's power.
If the Lord no longer wants you to teach, but is calling you to preach, then He will close the door to teaching and open the door for preaching. Until He closes one door in your life and opens another, you should stay where you are in God's power. Now, where you are, wait for His power before you work.
This is how to wait for God's power in your life, where you are, right now.
As it is written, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." Every activity has a beginning and end. Apply this to your imaginary job as a teacher. Your work day begins; your work day ends
Before you go to work, you have to get up, take a shower, eat breakfast, then drive to work. Say you work Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. Say it takes 20 minutes to get to your job and be perfectly on time. This means you need to leave at 8:40. Now let's say it takes you 30 minutes to get ready, 15 minutes to shower and put on clothes, and 15 minutes to eat breakfast. Then you need to begin getting ready by 8:10. But how much time do you need to sleep to feel fully rested? Say 8 hours gives you a good night sleep. So if you went to bed by 11 pm and woke up at 7 am, you'd be fully rested, and you'd have an hour to wait for God's power, with 10 minutes to spare.
If your life fit the schedule above, you'd need to get up in time to wait for God's power, and to know you'd received it. Jesus and His followers did. God's power was clearly given to them, and they knew it. Before they began God's work, they knew they'd received God's power. How did they know, and how will you know?
(Click here for part 3)
Paul said to stay in the situation you were in when you became a believer unless God gives you a way out of that situation. For example, if you were teacher when you became a believer, you should remain a teacher, but now you should teach in God's power.
If the Lord no longer wants you to teach, but is calling you to preach, then He will close the door to teaching and open the door for preaching. Until He closes one door in your life and opens another, you should stay where you are in God's power. Now, where you are, wait for His power before you work.
This is how to wait for God's power in your life, where you are, right now.
As it is written, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." Every activity has a beginning and end. Apply this to your imaginary job as a teacher. Your work day begins; your work day ends
Before you go to work, you have to get up, take a shower, eat breakfast, then drive to work. Say you work Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. Say it takes 20 minutes to get to your job and be perfectly on time. This means you need to leave at 8:40. Now let's say it takes you 30 minutes to get ready, 15 minutes to shower and put on clothes, and 15 minutes to eat breakfast. Then you need to begin getting ready by 8:10. But how much time do you need to sleep to feel fully rested? Say 8 hours gives you a good night sleep. So if you went to bed by 11 pm and woke up at 7 am, you'd be fully rested, and you'd have an hour to wait for God's power, with 10 minutes to spare.
If your life fit the schedule above, you'd need to get up in time to wait for God's power, and to know you'd received it. Jesus and His followers did. God's power was clearly given to them, and they knew it. Before they began God's work, they knew they'd received God's power. How did they know, and how will you know?
(Click here for part 3)
How to wait for God's power in your life (Part 1)
Jesus, the Son of God, born of a virgin by the power of the Spirit, couldn't do anything until He received God's power. He had to wait. So do I. So do you.
Jesus' followers, who spent three years with him, seeing Him perform miracles, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, couldn't do anything until they received God's power. They had to wait.
So do I. So do you.
If God in the flesh had to wait for God's power before He began God's work, so do I, and so do you.
If Jesus' followers, who only had to tell what they had seen with their own eyes, had to wait for God's power to simply tell what they had seen, so do I, and so do you.
This is how you wait for God's power in your life.
First, waiting implies not only time, but a specific amount of time. It's not indefinite by any means. And if it's specific or definite, then you have to know how long to wait before you do God's work for you. Jesus had to wait until He was 30, which made sense in His day because ministers couldn't begin ministry until they were 30. Jesus' followers were commanded to wait "not many days from now," which ended up being 10 days. Jesus didn't say "10 days from now," but the followers knew that the Jewish festival of Pentecost was exactly 10 days from the day Jesus ascended into heaven. Ten days is "not many days," even for us.
If your boss told you he or she would give you a raise in 10 days, that wouldn't seem like many days. Or if he or she said, "I'll give you a raise not many days from now," you'd expect a raise soon. Within a week, or two at the most. But if your boss wanted you to do a certain job that required a specific amount of money or resources, and told you to wait until you received those resources, you'd have to know what the resources were and you'd have to wait until you received them. But how long? Until the time came for the job to begin.
Keyword: Job.
(Click here for part 2.)
Jesus' followers, who spent three years with him, seeing Him perform miracles, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, couldn't do anything until they received God's power. They had to wait.
So do I. So do you.
If God in the flesh had to wait for God's power before He began God's work, so do I, and so do you.
If Jesus' followers, who only had to tell what they had seen with their own eyes, had to wait for God's power to simply tell what they had seen, so do I, and so do you.
This is how you wait for God's power in your life.
First, waiting implies not only time, but a specific amount of time. It's not indefinite by any means. And if it's specific or definite, then you have to know how long to wait before you do God's work for you. Jesus had to wait until He was 30, which made sense in His day because ministers couldn't begin ministry until they were 30. Jesus' followers were commanded to wait "not many days from now," which ended up being 10 days. Jesus didn't say "10 days from now," but the followers knew that the Jewish festival of Pentecost was exactly 10 days from the day Jesus ascended into heaven. Ten days is "not many days," even for us.
If your boss told you he or she would give you a raise in 10 days, that wouldn't seem like many days. Or if he or she said, "I'll give you a raise not many days from now," you'd expect a raise soon. Within a week, or two at the most. But if your boss wanted you to do a certain job that required a specific amount of money or resources, and told you to wait until you received those resources, you'd have to know what the resources were and you'd have to wait until you received them. But how long? Until the time came for the job to begin.
Keyword: Job.
(Click here for part 2.)
How to wait for God's power in your life (Part 3)
You get up at 7am to ask for and receive God's power for your day, for the job you are going to. Do you have to wait an hour and 10 minutes, according to the times given in part 2? Not necessarily. You need to get up early enough to not be rushed, and to know you've received God's power. Yet even if you over sleep and are late, remember you still had 20 minutes to drive to work. You can wait for and receive God's power in the 20 minute drive. And you will know it. Just as Jesus and His followers knew they had God's power for God's work, so will you.
This is how to wait for God's power in your life.
The key is focus on God's purpose.
To accomplish God's purpose you need God's power.
What is God's purpose for you?
What will He give you power to do?
He will give you power to do the job you already have. If He wants you to have another job, He'll give you one, and give you the power to do your new job.
Taking time before you work to ask God power to do the job you have is the way to wait for God's power in your life.
This is how to wait for God's power in your life.
- In at least the 20 minutes you have to get to work, simply unconditionally surrender your will to God. If you have any unconfessed sin in your life, confess it. If you are holding on to anything or anyone more than you are holding on to God, let him or her or it go. Dedicate yourself completely to God. Dedicate your job completely to God.
- Ask God to fill you with His Spirit to do His work, to do your job for His glory and in his power.
- Thank God that He has done it, because God answers every prayer that agrees with His will. Your prayer, by definition, is according to His will. Keep thanking and praising God until you get to work.
The key is focus on God's purpose.
To accomplish God's purpose you need God's power.
What is God's purpose for you?
What will He give you power to do?
He will give you power to do the job you already have. If He wants you to have another job, He'll give you one, and give you the power to do your new job.
Taking time before you work to ask God power to do the job you have is the way to wait for God's power in your life.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
What will the end be like?
You already know.
The last day, the final day, will involve exactly what today involves.
The decision you are making right now, if unchanged, will be the decision you make on the last day, your last day, in the end, in your end.
What decision?
Do you accept or reject God as God, as your God, as The God?
The end will be like the focus of your first consciously chosen thought for the day, and the last consciously chosen thought before you sleep: What am I living for, and what am I willing to die for?
Now to die for something may not be as dramatic as martyrdom. It simply means that you are willing to give up everything to get the thing that you want more than anything. You do it already. What do you spend most of your time doing? Why do you work, even when you don't feel like going to work? Or what do you persistently do or refuse to do no matter the consequences to you or others?
Whatever it is that you can't and won't give up, you won't give it up in the end, just as you don't give it up when each day ends.
The only difference will be this: Your decision for that day, the last day, in the end, will be final.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
How do I know God is with me?
I can think of nothing better than the presence of God. If He is with me and in me, then I never lack anything or anyone. Ever. But how do I know God is with me?
By believing the attribute of God's omnipresence, and applying that attribute to my life, I have no choice but to acknowledge God's presence in the room with me right now. I define omnipresence in two ways:
1. God is everywhere at once.
2. God is everywhere that He wants to be.
The second definition is critical to God's divine liberty and sovereignty. Often times Christians and theologians make God a slave to His attributes. Because He is everywhere at once, He must be everywhere at once, whether He wants to be or not. This means God is even in hell in a way that causes Him the conscious experience of those who reject Him, whether He wants this conscious experience or not. But God is free. He is everywhere at once, and He is also everywhere He wants to be, as well as no where that He doesn't want to be. I will show these two applications of God's omnipresence in my personal life: that God is in the room with me, and that He wants to be in the room with me.
Everywhere includes where I am right now.
Therefore, God is where I am right now.
But more than this, those who consciously acknowledge God's omnipresence are consciously aware that He is where they are.
I am one who consciously acknowledges God's omnipresence.
Therefore, I am consciously aware that God is where I am.
In other words, because God is aware of me, and I am aware of His awareness of me, I am aware that He wants me to be aware of Him. How could I be aware of His awareness if God Himself didn't want me to be aware of Him? Because God is everywhere, wherever He wants to be, and because God cannot be where He chooses not to be, if I am aware of Him, He wants me to be aware of Him.
And the same is true for you, if you want it to be.
By believing the attribute of God's omnipresence, and applying that attribute to my life, I have no choice but to acknowledge God's presence in the room with me right now. I define omnipresence in two ways:
1. God is everywhere at once.
2. God is everywhere that He wants to be.
The second definition is critical to God's divine liberty and sovereignty. Often times Christians and theologians make God a slave to His attributes. Because He is everywhere at once, He must be everywhere at once, whether He wants to be or not. This means God is even in hell in a way that causes Him the conscious experience of those who reject Him, whether He wants this conscious experience or not. But God is free. He is everywhere at once, and He is also everywhere He wants to be, as well as no where that He doesn't want to be. I will show these two applications of God's omnipresence in my personal life: that God is in the room with me, and that He wants to be in the room with me.
God is Spirit-- everywhere, unlimited by time and space.Everywhere includes where I am right now.
Therefore, God is where I am right now.
But more than this, those who consciously acknowledge God's omnipresence are consciously aware that He is where they are.
I am one who consciously acknowledges God's omnipresence.
Therefore, I am consciously aware that God is where I am.
In other words, because God is aware of me, and I am aware of His awareness of me, I am aware that He wants me to be aware of Him. How could I be aware of His awareness if God Himself didn't want me to be aware of Him? Because God is everywhere, wherever He wants to be, and because God cannot be where He chooses not to be, if I am aware of Him, He wants me to be aware of Him.
And the same is true for you, if you want it to be.
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