You have professed your faith in God, and accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, but now you are asking yourself... “What is the Holy Spirit, will I receive it, and how will I know when I do?” Let’s explore the breath of Jesus and the Spirit He breathes onto us. Let’s ask our Lord to give us His comforter, and teacher to be with us as we journey, and to provide us through His Holy Spirit those things we need along the way.
Today is the beginning of a brand-new year, and as such, let’s contemplate the true source of our joy. I have come to understand that I shouldn’t look to the world for my joy, but to the Lord Jesus Christ instead. I came to this conclusion because the world fails me. However, Jesus, my Redeemer and Savior, never disappoints or abandons me. The joy of Christ was, and is, steadfast and unfailing because it flows from the absolute nature of love in God. Are you walking with Jesus today and if so, do you find this joy to be true in your daily life with Him? Are you seeking His joy and preparing yourself to become more completely united with Him over the course of the coming year? If you are then you will find that His joy isn’t the only source of joy you will receive… you will experience the love and joy of God.
Today is the last day of the year, and typically one in which we take stock of our accomplishments and failures over the past twelve months. This is also a time when we make plans for the coming year and determine the condition of our present life. As you do so, do you have regrets that haunt you, and fears that give you tribulation as you look towards the coming new year? Well, “fear not” because our Lord uses what is past and present to prepare us for what lies ahead, and He helps us face today with a firm faith in His goodness, mercy, and grace.
When we come to know Jesus Christ, and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, something amazing begins to happen in, and to us. We are most certainly relieved of the sin which began in Adam and Eve, but the knowledge of good and evil remains... so what is God to do with that?
Has God called you to believe and/or to serve Him in a way that requires you to sacrifice something you own, or of yourself? Are you at a place in your walk of faith that requires you to make a choice between believing and having faith in Him, and Jesus, or returning to where you once were in faithlessness? Well, every believer comes through such forks in the road, and it separates the true believers who go to the right, from the nonbelievers who turn back to the left. Sometimes it occurs at the first moment of our belief when we must decide who Jesus is, or maybe at other more sacrificial times when we must answer or not answer a challenging call from God.
Are we like children before God, or are we walking in your own independent self-righteousness? Do we say, “I believe” and yet act like we are in control of our own lives? Maybe we have trusted God with our life at some point, but have since taken those reins back from Him, and slowly, over time, found ourselves walking totally apart from Him. Do we know where we are? Are we uncertain how, and if, we can come home again? Well, through Christ we can.
Do we deny the sin within us? Do we say to ourselves that we are moral, good, and that we harm no one? Do we argue that our morality makes us righteous? Well, my response to this is that if we believe this then we mustn’t have any idea what sin truly is... or else we are lying to ourselves. Let’s look at sin further today.
Are we worthy? Are we worthy of the Christ Child’s birth that we celebrated yesterday? Are we worthy of the sacrifice that God made by giving His only begotten Son to die for your sins? Are we worthy of an audience with the creator of the universe? Are we worthy of His forgiveness? There are so many questions like this that most of us would answer with a resounding “NO!”, but is that really true? Do we even know what it means to be worthy?
Today, all believers are celebrating the birth of the Messiah, the Christ, our Redeemer, and in our unbridled joy our hearts are leaping within us as we praise Him. So, let’s listen to this age-old story once again as it is told to us in the book of Luke and as we pray that God will be pleased with so that we will personally experience His Peace On Earth!
On this day, Christmas Eve, we are in great expectation of a tiny baby’s arrival into the lineage of David... He is the Christ Child, Jesus, Emanuel, the Son of God. He will be born in Bethlehem, and a star will shine bright inside each of us to show the way to where He was held to His mother’s breast and has now come to abide in us. Are we ready to make the journey to where He is and to meet Him where He was born into the world; into each of us? In the anticipation of His coming can we hear Him calling us to where Angels were once preparing themselves to announce Him?
Have the things of the world died to you? Are you a different person today than you were the day before you first believed? Have you asked the Lord to forgive you for your sins today and then taken a deep and refreshing breath of relief once they were lifted from you? Or do you ask for and receive His forgiveness only to neglect the fruit of that redemption, which is the peace, joy, and rest He means for you to be blessed with? Let’s look at this dastardly ploy of Satan who attempts to steal the heavenly peace and joy of God away from us by keeping us spiritually bound to sin and our continued focus on another one of his lies… which is the need for our ongoing spiritual regret and conviction for previously forgiven sins long after the Lord our God and Savior Jesus Christ have cleansed us of them
Are you struggling with whether you will give yourself to Jesus, and fully believe in God? Have you been reasoning and reading scripture without moving an inch closer to actually believing? If so, then quit listening to your own intellect, and still your mind... then open your ears to the still small voice of God that has been calling you to “Come” and which now asks you to determine what has brought you to this place. Hearing God isn’t a matter of intellectual reasoning on your part; it is being inexplicably drawn by His voice alone. So… what are you doing here, and will you come to Him?
Do you know who Jesus is? Have you developed a relationship with God? Are you confident in your faith and feel like you have a handle on it? If you answered “Yes” to the first two questions, that is exciting and wonderful. If you answered “Yes” to the third then you are in for some big surprises as you read on.
The world is five sunrises away from Christmas morning, and the day we celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Thank God Almighty we aren’t still awaiting His birth but find ourselves celebrating that which has already come! As I do on the birthdays of my own children, I find myself reminiscing and thinking back to that day when Jesus was born and I hope that it brings the same tears to you that is does to my eyes. Jesus is with us always, every minute, day, and week... so I invite you to listen as I praise Him in verse, and to join with me by reading and praying these words of joyous praise...
As we move towards a godly state of righteousness we shed one sin after another until at last we are down to our pet sins... those that give us personal pleasure or reduce the pain of living in some way. When we reach this point, and we refuse to let these sins go, then our relationship with God stalls, and we feel a growing separation from Jesus. This can happen early on in our walk of faith, but usually it occurs once all the low hanging sinful fruit has been plucked from us. These deeply rooted personal sins require a specialized spiritual surgery to extract them.