Being The Light

Matt. 5:14---You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

It only takes a tiny light to illuminate the darkness. In scientific terms, darkness is nothing, light is something. Darkness is the absence of energy. Light is the presence of energy. In your life, no matter who you are or where you are, you carry the energy or spirit of Christ to all those around you. That spirit is passed on from person to person, illuminating the darkness of their lives. If we could track it, your transmission of Christ’ spiritual light could be traced as traveling all over the world. When we face reality, each of us is critically important to God. We are important because we are His way of getting His love into the world. God’s love is best delivered by you, in all the ways you can think up, in all the ways you can create, in all the ways He leads you. You carry the torch of the Love that sustains all that is. Too many of us do not want to believe we could ever be this important, but we are. If those of us who love the Lord deeply were to disappear from the earth, what would be the effect? You know the answer. If those of us who deeply love the Lord were to disappear, what would be the effect upon our friends, co-workers, contacts, and family members who remain? You know the answer. You are indeed "the light of the world." Let it shine.

Precaution

 Ephesians 5:15-16---See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Precaution defined is a measure taken in advance to prevent something dangerous, unpleasant, or inconvenient from happening.

To walk circumspectly is to walk with precaution always looking and preparing for what may come. Redeeming the time is the precaution of not wasting time.

 The story is told that the lawyer for the defense, in the damage suit, asked a witness who had seen the plaintive struck by the automobile, how far the victim was thrown by the impact.

"Fifteen feet, six and three-quarter inches," was the instant response.

"You seem to be very exact in your figures," exclaimed the lawyer sarcastically. "How does that happen?"

"I guessed some fool lawyer would ask me," the witness answered, "so I measured the distance."

Precaution is a good thing!

New Power

We have power over the air via human flight but terrorists are seeking to destroy the plane and all those who are aboard.

We have built our country (the USA) into the most advanced country on earth but hatred against our country runs deep in many places.

We have unbelievable technology but are using the technology in unbelievably sinful ways.

We have inventions and we have abortions by the millions.

We have life-saving medicine but a world full of vacant and empty souls.

We have extended human life and the life being lived is often miserable.

We are trying to control the weather and the weather is reacting in violent ways.

We have reversed the aging process in experimental animals but we have lost the meaning and purpose of life in humans.

We have discovered the kill switch in living cells that tells the cells to die but millions of people live on the edge of starvation.

Not only do we have power but we are getting more and more power from new power sources. What will happen now that we have new power?

God Knows Your Suffering

God knows your suffering. Your pain, isolation, and loneliness are a burden God carries with you. You are not alone in this life. A person is walking with you and beside you every moment you breathe the breath of life. That person is our most wonderful Savior and Friend, Jesus Christ. You will never walk this path of life by yourself. You will never be by yourself. You are not ignored as you gasp for air in life's darkness and pain. Your muscles and joints may cry out in pain yet your God is always pushing you to live up life as much as possible. Your heart may break at the suffering you endure, but God holds your heart in His hands. God treasures your heart. No life on earth is ever lived without God knowing about it. No microbe lives without the knowledge of God. We cannot understand all of this mystery. We cannot fathom all that God is and does in our lives and in the lives of others. What we can fathom and what we can understand is the presence of God in our heart. We can understand most clearly that each of us has the power to accept or reject the love that is God. Each of us, every second we are alive, does make the decision to accept or reject the love that is God.

Picking Up The Pieces

We all have hopes and dreams. Sometimes our hopes and dreams are crushed due to factors over which we have no control. When our hopes and dreams are crushed, we talk about having to pick up the pieces. What we must remember when our hopes and dreams are crushed is that God always gives us a way to pick up the pieces. God always gives us a way to piece our lives back together again. Piecing our lives back together is not easy. Many people are often afraid to try to pick up the pieces after hopes and dreams have been crushed. However, God gave you a mind, a heart, and a soul to hold, possess, and pursue hopes and dreams. You can pursue your own dreams, but God wants you to pursue only His dreams for your life. When you pursue His dream there is never any disappointment. When you pursue God's dream for your life, the love of God flowing down over you can heal you from the tragedy and loss of your worldly hopes and dreams that have been crushed.

Love and Patience

1 Corinthians 13: 4-----Love is patient.

Love has a way of letting things happen in God's time. Love is a taskmaster not of earthly origin but of godly origin, yielding godly treasures. With love, there is no urgency to hurry up and get things done for earthly approval. With love, there is always the willingness to wait and see. With love, there is a willingness to wait and trust God to work out details beyond your control. With love in the sinews of your soul, you rest in God's hand and in His love. With love, when things do not work out as you plan, you are willing to let Him work things out as He plans. Love gives you a way to see how the pieces of puzzles fit together. Confusion reigns in the hearts of those who do not have love. Love gives you the ability to work for a lifetime to serve your Savior with no expectation of reward. Love gives you the ability to serve God with no expectation of visible results, and with no expectation of any kind of earthly praise.

Look For Small Positives

Looking for small positives is not a matter of thinking positively in negative circumstances. Looking for small positives is an attitude that helps us seek out the best opportunities and the best resources in every setting. If all we ever see is the negatives, we end up reacting only to the negatives. If we look for small positives, we have an opportunity to use the small positives to our advantage and use the small positives as a resource upon which we can build. Our life is filled with small positives but when we are in a negative frame of mind, we too often do not even look for the small positives, let alone see them. You cannot build upon a negative circumstance as easy as you can a positive circumstance. Most often, a negative circumstance requires time and resources to turn the negative into a positive. Negative circumstances like mistakes require fixing if fixing is possible. Positive circumstances not only require no fixing, but positive circumstances can be used to overcome those matters, issues, and events that are negative. In your life, you can do great things with your positive attributes, your positive talents, your positive traits, and your positive abilities. Your positives are your assets. Your negatives are your liabilities.

KNOWING FULLY

1 Corinthians 13:12---For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

We are very limited in what we know about God. Our limited knowledge about God is what makes so much of our faith journey so difficult. Although we know little about God, God knows everything about us. He knows our every thought, our every want, our every emotion, and our every need. God knows about our sins, our faults, and our mistakes but He still loves us. Christ died for us knowing us. Christ could see your sins and faults but He died for you anyway. There are many things about Christ we do not know. However, there is one thing we do know. We know He loves us. We know He loves us and cares about us every minute we are alive upon this earth. We also know He would have died for you and me even if we were the only person on earth.

Hunger for the Word

Hunger for the Word of God

By Dr. Adrian Rogers

“I rejoice at Thy Word.” Psalm 119:162

Job said, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

When God’s Word is as important to you as your physical food, then you’re going to start to grow in your Christian life. I wonder if one day the dust on our Bibles is not going to testify against us. The following poem sobers my heart. These hath God married and no man shall part, Dust on the Bible and drought in the heart. Oh, that we would hunger for the Word of God! Fast one meal today. Sense just a touch of the hunger our hearts are to have for the Word of God. And remember to pray for those who need the pure milk of His Word!

Old And New Testament Treasures

Matthew 13:52---Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

A scribe in Jesus day was also called a "rabbi." They gave their life to the study of the laws of Moses. Though they made their living from another occupation, their main concern was the law and teaching it to others. Jesus often spoke against the scribes, but here He spoke of a scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven. One such scribe was the Apostle Paul. When you read the writings of Paul you will find he exemplifies this verse. He always backs his statements with Old Testament passages. He has new applications from the life and teaching of Jesus as well as divine revelation, but he always confirms them with quotations from the ancient Scriptures. The Christian today should have the same balance of Old and New Testament treasures. We often find an overemphasis on the New Testament to the exclusion of the Old. If we don't study the Old, we will not understand all the references to it in the New. We can easily misinterpret a passage because we don't know the context of the quote from the Old. The authors of the New Testament knew that the Old was inspired, and that is why they applied it as the proof of what they were writing. Don't neglect your study of the Old Testament or you will never understand the depth of the New Testament. The Old Testament is the New concealed, while the New Testament is the Old revealed. The message is the same.

Every Day Is A Gift From God, Use It Wisely

2 Kings 20:5---Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

God warned Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah that he was about to die. Hezekiah pleaded with God with tears for longer life. God granted him fifteen more years and promised to keep Jerusalem from being conquered. God even gave him reassurance that it would happen by a sign. The shadow of the sun moved backward ten steps. Sometimes we are given extra time. Perhaps it is an answer to prayer or the intervention of a doctor that is at the right place at the right time with the specific knowledge of what one needs. What will we do with that extra time? Hezekiah grew proud (2Chronicles 32:25). He showed the emissaries from Babylon all his treasure which would incite a future conquest of Judah by Babylon. He fathered a son that would be one of the worst kings in Judah's history. God tested him to reveal what was in his heart, and Hezekiah again humbled himself before the Lord.

Being Right With God And Family

Malachi 4:2, 5-6---But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

The Old Testament closes with promises. Those who revere the name of the LORD can know the sun of righteousness will rise upon them with healing in its wings. In the Revelation given to John, he saw the heavenly city did not need light, for the Lamb was the light of it. Those who revere the name of our eternal God can look forward with hope to the reign of Jesus, to living in the presence of God. The final words predict the next prophet, the final person to hold the office of prophet in the Old Testament sense. Jesus declared that John the Baptist was Elijah (Matthew 11:13,14). He comes again before the Day of Judgment. The reason he comes is to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. John's message was one of repentance. He called on people to deal with heart issues that blocked the way of the Messiah's entrance into their hearts. They were to have a change in the way they thought. We expect children to be rebellious and for fathers to have little devotion to their children, but this is not God's intention. In fact, it is the reason He will smite the land with a curse. Parents are to nurture their children, and children are to honor their parents. This is a reflection of God's relationship with us. Being right with God includes right family relationships.

Always Remember Covenants You Make

Malachi 2:13-15---And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Malachi means 'my messenger'. The Temple had been reconstructed. The people of Israel were sliding back into some of their old patterns. They could never be the people God intended them to be without a miraculous heart change. The LORD pointed out some of their specific sins in Q and A style. He asked the question that was on their heart. Why doesn't the LORD accept our offerings? How did they know He did not accept them? They knew because their crops were not blessed. Other people ruled over them. The blessing of God was not upon them, and they knew it. Are you being blessed? Why not? Is it divorce? Men covenanted with the wife of their youth in marriage. God never takes lightly the breaking of a covenant. The two are made one. They are no longer individually His, but corporately His. He asks again, "Why one?" God is seeking godly offspring. Divorce is so devastating to children. It gives the enemy of their soul a foothold for bitterness and self- loathing. It spiritually handicaps the children. Of course, God can help them work through it if they seek Him. The point is, for our convenience, we take the easy way out and injure others. The wife in that culture was then left without a means of support and was rarely remarried.

A Nation In Prophecy (Israel)

Zechariah 12:1-3---The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

It is easy to see why the Jews got mixed up about Jesus first and second comings when you read the prophecies in Zechariah. In some cases, a prediction of His first coming is followed by the second in the next verse. There would only be one more prophet, Malachi, between Zechariah and John the Baptist. No wonder he speaks so much of the coming Messiah and the ultimate restoration of Israel. In our passage today we see the final great battle of Armageddon. The armies of the world surround Jerusalem. In these last three chapters of Zechariah's prophecy, we see the purging of Israel, their repentance and acceptance of the Messiah, and the Messiah's establishment of His reign over the earth. Look at your newspaper today. There is probably an article on the conflict over this tiny nation. It is not even 1% of the landmass of the Arab nations that surround it, and yet it has become an immovable rock. Time and time again the Arabs have tried to move it, only to injure themselves. It is the zeal or jealous love of the Lord that is accomplishing this. The Creator of heaven and earth made a covenant with Abraham, and He is keeping it. Yes, it has been kept in the spiritual sense, but reading these last three chapters of Zechariah, you can see that it will be fulfilled in the Messianic Israelites as they recognize their Messiah.

Commune With God

Zechariah 4:6-7---Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Zerubbabel was concerned that he will not be able to finish the work the Lord had called him to do. The obstacles before him seemed like a mountain that had to be moved. There were political enemies, threats of physical violence, and the people who were doing the work had their own concerns for family and safety. Then the angel of the LORD conveyed a message from the LORD to Zerubbabel. It is not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the LORD that things are accomplished. What a relief those words must have been to him. The message went on to say that the mountain of obstacles would become level ground. He would bring out the final finishing stone while the people shout blessings on the finished Temple. Many of you reading this devotional probably look at your church and see a mountain that must be moved before it can be the church God wants it to be. How in the world will you get from here to there? It is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the LORD. Man often intervenes with his power and might and ends up making a bigger mountain. Ask the LORD to do it by His Spirit. Act only at His leading. You will bring out that capstone with the people shouting, "God bless it!"