He Loves Us!

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
Romans 5.8 (HCSB)

I don't know about you but some days I just need to be reminded of how much God loves me.  He does love each of us and He demonstrated that love by dieing for us.  He did that while we were still in our sin.  He didn't demand we clean up first but that in all of our mess He came down and showed us His great love.  Revel in His love today.  Listen to David Crowder as He sings of this great love.!

David Crowder*Band - How He Loves (Official Music Video) from david-crowder-band on GodTube.

Making the Most of It

This is what the Lord of Host, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:  "Build houses and live in them.  Plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters.  Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters.  Multiply there; do not decrease.  Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to.  Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper."
Jeremiah 29.4-7 (HCSB)

I don't know about you but the statement, "Making the most of it!" just doesn't seem biblical.  And yet that is exactly what we find God saying to His people through Jeremiah.  There is a spiritual truth here for Christ followers.  We must learn to the make the most of our situations, good and bad.  There are many times that we find ourselves where we don't want to be.  Family, in the work place, in our finances we encounter situations that we didn't ask for and we don't like.
Truthfully there are some situations we bring on ourselves.  They are the consequences of our choices and sin.  Sometimes we find ourselves in a troubling place because of others decisions.  Sometimes we find ourselves living out a part of God's will that we just don't understand.  So what do we do?  Well, make the most of it!  As Jeremiah says, don't stop living!  Commit it to God and make the most of it for His sake and for yours.  We don't always understand God's plans and purpose but we must do our best to bring Him glory regardless.

Do you know Him?

 The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

John 10:2-3 (HCSB)

Do you know the shepherd?  Most of us who spend time in church would say yes absolutely!  And yet we must ask.  Do we really?

Very simple truth here.  The shepherd does not sneak in but walks in the front door.  There is a  question that if Jesus, the good Shepherd was to walk in the front door of many of our church buildings would we know Him?  How do we know?

Well we should if we are His sheep.  Hear His voice.  It's not that He is not able to speak but that some so called "sheep" are just not listening.  Jesus also says He will know His sheep by name.  There is a personal and intimate relationship described here.  Finally, we are told that the third description is that He will lead us out.  Jesus leads us and true sheep will follow.  Many meeting in church buildings regularly are not being led by the Shepherd.  The problem is not with His willingness or ability to lead but our inability and unwillingness to follow.  Notice too, that He leads them "out" of the sheep fold.  Jesus is leading His sheep out of the comfort of the sheep fold and into a world of danger.

Where is Jesus leading you?  Are you listening?

Reality of Sin

We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6 (HCSB)

We would like to see ourselves differently than we are.  We like to describe ourselves with words like nice, kind or good.  Reality is that we are sinful, straying, disobedient and wayward.  There is a reality that we need to understand about ourselves.  We are sinful!  We have gone astray.  We have missed the mark.  We make mistakes.  We are not perfect.  We want to go our way instead of God's way.  Why is this important?

Well it comes as no surprise to us if we are followers of Christ.  In order for us to sign on to following Him we had to wrestle with this truth at least once before.  It is the acknowledgement of our sin that drove us to Him.  If He is our savior we had to discover our need to be saved.  We came to Jesus because we recognized the truth of Scripture.  All have sinned and Jesus is God's only provision for forgiveness and cleansing.  But we forget.  We begin to once again think we are pretty good, nice guys who really aren't all that bad.  Reality check:  We are like sheep who have gone astray.

So today, remember who you are outside of the grace of God.  Recognize the reality.  Recommit to Him being your master.  That is what being a Christ follower is all about.

Choose to Stand

"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Matt 10:32-33 (NASB95)

Life is full of choices.  Sometimes we foolishly feel those choices will be easy.  Peter did that.  He declared he would never forsake Jesus but when the difficult time came he did the very thing.  We must choose before the crisis what we will do and who we will be.  James MacDonald wrote, "I will not walk away from the Lord when things get hard.  I choose to stand for Him."  Let us make the choice that regardless of the circumstances we will be Christ followers who will not walk away.