Walking With Jesus

God’s Plans

“So I arrived in Jerusalem. Three days later, I slipped out during the night, taking only a few others with me. I had not told anyone about the plans God had put in my heart for Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:11-12a NLT)

Nehemiah was the cupbearer of King Artaxerxes and had apparently done a great job, because when Nehemiah shared with the king why he was sad, the king pledged his support of the project the Lord had laid on Nehemiah’s heart. The details of his plan to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem was fairly straightforward but would cost lots of money the returning Jews didn’t have.

It’s not unusual for God’s plans to be expensive, but He always makes a way if we’re sensitive to His leading. There are a few key ingredients to God’s plans that give us guidance to determine if – A. Is it truly God’s plan? And B. Has He given us a strategy to follow when we’re sure it’s God’s plan. Has God given you a plan? Are you sure it’s God’s plan? Has He given you a God-ordained strategy?

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The Lord has given me a mission to reach my neighbors. There are about 120 homes in my little neighborhood and I’m believing the Lord for the salvation of every person in every house. A pretty tall order, right? Not for God! So, the first question I have to answer is – Is it truly God’s plan? The two Scriptures that come immediately to mind are Matthew 28:18: “Jesus came and told His disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations…’” And Matthew 22:39: “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

His commission isn’t a suggestion, it’s a directive to reach the people in our spheres of influence, not in our strength and ingenuity, but in His authority. It’s going to look differently for each of us, as God has gifted us in different ways, so our strategies will vary, but our mission is the same. So, yes, I’m convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Lord has commissioned me to reach my neighbors.

So, secondly, has He given me a strategy? Yes, He’s unfolding a strategy that is bearing fruit and will continue to reveal itself as I step into its process. One word of caution here: God’s plan and strategy for me is for ME, not necessarily for you. If you can use some ideas or plans that the Lord has given me and you’re confident He’s leading you to use some or all of what He’s showing me, that’s fine. But don’t let the enemy bog you down with guilt, because you can’t do what He’s enabling me to do. You can follow God’s plan for you to reach those in your spheres of influence. It may look different, but will be no less effective.

E.M. Bounds said: “All God’s plans have the mark of the cross on them, and all His plans have death to self in them.” Regardless of how He leads you at least two things will be true of the mission and strategy He gives you: they will be sacrificial and unselfish. They will require sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading and determination to allow your desires to be put to “death” in an effort to exalt and honor Jesus in and through, not only what He leads you to do, but how He fills and empowers you to do them.

If you’ve ever heard me preach, you know I’m not a great preacher. I sought to be thoroughly prepared and true to Scripture, but I’m not a powerful orator. He has, however, given me a sensitivity to His voice that enables me to be a decent writer. So, my strategy has been to write notes to my neighbors. But He’s also given me a heart to pray, so, as opportunity affords, I pray with and for my neighbors.

One thing the Lord is laying on my heart as I read His Word is to take Him at His word and allow His Spirit to flow in and through me in powerful and practical ways. I’m believing God for healing as well as salvation for my neighbors. With few exceptions physical healing accompanied spiritual deliverance in Jesus’ ministry. You and I have been given His authority to carry out His ministry – should we not believe He will give us insight, wisdom, understanding, and power to carry out exactly what He instructs us to do?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Pleasures Never Lie

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” (Philippians 2:13 NLT)

Pleasure can be the playground of the devil or the canvas upon which God’s presence is painted more clearly on our heart. Physical pleasure is fleeting yet can become intoxicating for those who seek to perpetuate it. On the other hand, living to please and honor God is exhilarating in a way that lingers and satisfies the soul. On some levels it’s the difference between happiness and joy.

We are subject to the same temptations that Jesus experienced in the wilderness. John summarizes them in 1 John 2:16: “…a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” We can lie to ourselves all day that none of these things appeal to us, but the Word of God doesn’t lie and neither do our pleasures.

John Piper said: “The soul is measured by its flights, some low and others high, the heart is known by its delights, and pleasures never lie.” What delights your heart?

When my kids were small the pastor with whom we served would loan us his car and camper so we could vacation on our very limited budget. We would camp by the beach in South Carolina and after a full day of playing in the sun, nothing compared to sitting by the fire, making smores and relaxing together. God blesses us with pleasurable experiences, not so we can “live” there, but so we can refresh and rekindle our energy and enthusiasm for more effectively serving Him.

If our mission is to allow the Lord to live His life out through us, our goal should be to seek the Lord’s pleasure, not our own. Does that mean we shouldn’t enjoy times with family and friends?

Of course not. To me quality time with family and friends is God-ordained time. It’s not a question of enjoying God or enjoying something else. To me it’s enjoying the Lord’s presence regardless of what I’m doing. The point as I see it is, does what brings us pleasure enhance our relationship with the Lord or detract from it.

Being with family, whether literal relatives or believing friends, is a way to experience the pleasure of God’s presence in and through the quality time we spend together. Jesus found pleasure with His friends, in ministry to others, as well as when He was alone with His Father.

My conclusion is that it’s not so much WHAT we do as WHY we do it. If we do our ministry-related work begrudgingly, wishing every second we were somewhere else, doing something else, it’s valueless in terms of rendering glory to the Lord. But if I find in my work, whether my literal employment or for the Lord, pleasure as I seek to serve in a manner that allows the Lord to reveal Himself in and through me, it creates an ideal environment for a pleasurable outcome.

So the question becomes: does that which brings us the most pleasure enhance our love and effectiveness for the Lord, or does it push us away from Him? Are you finding pleasure in loving God or does your pleasure blind you to His love?

Perhaps John Piper said it best: “Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?” Remember, pleasures never lie!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Does Satisfaction in God Mean?

“If you love your father or mother more than you love Me, you are not worthy of being Mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than Me, you are not worthy of being Mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of being Mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for Me, you will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39 NLT)

Love is a multi-dimensional decision. While love certainly has emotional implications, at its heart, love is an informed decision we make and by which we live.

At a Billy Graham seminar I attended many years ago, Dr. Graham shared about a girl he was dating when he first got saved. She was not a believer and the Lord made it clear to Billy that he needed to stop the relationship. He said: “I knew it was only puppy love, but she was a really cute puppy.”

It reminds me of a quote I read recently by John Piper when he said: “We don’t honor God by assuming we know what’s best in any given situation.” Loving Jesus demands submission to His authority and His directives in every area of our lives. To say we will love God “if” or “when” is to set boundaries that must not exist in the heart of a believer.

On some levels it shouts dissatisfaction in our relationship with God, implying that God is inadequate or unable to satisfy our hearts desires completely. It declares a divided allegiance that cannot exist in the heart of a Jesus follower. Nothing or no one can take a higher level of commitment and devotion than Jesus. But what does that mean? What does it look like on a practical level?

John Piper wrote: “Loving God is being satisfied in Him more than spouse, more than children, more than health, more than life.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “satisfy” as “to make happy; gratify.” Years ago, I read of a man who was imprisoned for his faith and his only sustenance was sweet potatoes God delivered to him in the mouth of a rat. Would it be fair to say that man was “satisfied” with those potatoes?

In my mind satisfaction can be a slippery slope, but for our purposes in this post, let’s say that satisfaction in God is that which brings the greatest delight to our soul. If you think about it, the people we love bring unique contributions to our lives. I love my wife differently than I love my children, my siblings, my co-workers, or my friends at church.

My satisfaction with my children may translate more into pride for their accomplishments or appreciation for their thoughtfulness, while my satisfaction with my wife touches a deep need for companionship and fulfillment like no other human can. But God’s love for me and my love for Him touches a place in my whole being that reverberates with joy, gladness, and contentment that can be satisfied in no other way.

There are gifts that God gives and rewards He offers us as His children that we can attain or have in no other relationship. To know my sins are forgiven and my soul is clean and pure in His sight; to realize that my life has worth on levels and for reasons that are unexplainable in human terms; that God sees in me more than I or anyone else can see in me, and that He gives me value I could never have apart from Him.

The joy of faithfully serving and seeking His honor and fame gives a dimension of satisfaction that can’t be measured by human standards and can’t be compared with any human relationship.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Value of Doubt

“When they saw Him, they worshiped Him – but some of them doubted!” (Matthew 28:17 NLT)

There are times in our walk with Jesus when what we see with our eyes doesn’t correlate with what we “see” with our mind. I think of the time after Corrie ten Boom had been freed from her Nazi captors. Following the delivery of a powerful message from the Lord, she stood at the front of the room to greet those who were present.

At one point the man whose tortuous and ruthless, treatment resulted in the death of many in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, including Corrie’s sister Betsie, stood before her with outstretched hand. In that split second Corrie doubted she could respond to this man’s desire to shake her hand. He didn’t recognize her, but she surely recognized him, not only his face, but also his responsibility for the horrible memories she had while under his vicious treatment.

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What would you have done in her shoes? Would the grace and mercy of God have given you cause to overcome your doubt and be Jesus to this man who had caused her such harm? Corrie ultimately responded graciously and with kindness, but it causes me to think of the times under much less severe circumstances when I haven’t been so loving.

We often think of doubt as being a crisis of faith which results in unbelief or a denial of something we profess to believe, and it can certainly mean that. But to me the value of doubt is that it gives rise to an opportunity for us to actually strengthen our faith by researching and verifying the validity of that which we are questioning.

Think of Jesus’ response to Thomas after Jesus’ resurrection. When I first read the verse above regarding the first time the disciples saw Jesus alive after His resurrection, I was aghast! “How could they have possibly doubted what had happened?” Then it occurred to me, how would I respond if someone I’d known and loved and knew had died, stood before me alive?

While your eyes may be “seeing,” the mind is struggling to catch up. There’s nothing wrong with that, and Jesus verified the validity of that kind of honest “doubt” when He said to Thomas in John 20:26: “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

Oswald Chambers wrote: “Doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong; it may be a sign that he is thinking.” Jesus doesn’t seek to quiet our legitimate doubts when we’re sincerely struggling to understand something that will ultimately lead us into deeper, more refined and useful faith. No human being, living or dead, except the Lord Jesus Himself, understands the depths of meaning of everything Jesus said, did, and is.

Following Jesus is a journey that, hopefully, is nearly continually informing, enlightening, training, encouraging, strengthening, enabling, teaching, and refining us in our walk with Him. We don’t follow out of “blind” faith, but informed and intelligent faith. Yes, of course, there are things we may not fully see or understand, that, in the process of our following, cause us a measure of doubt or cause us to have questions with which we wrestle.

The issue isn’t that we have doubts or questions, it’s that in the midst of those we continue to follow faithfully, confident that one day, in much the same way as He answered Thomas’ “doubt,” He will stand before us and clear our heart and mind of every question, every doubt.

Ideally, the value of our doubt will result in the deepening of our faith and in greater effectiveness in our service to our Savior.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why Faith In Jesus Is So Vital

“God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT)

Faith is a subject that can drive wedges between people or draw them together in unimaginable ways. Atheists decry faith as for the weak or unintelligent, as though the only way to really know what’s true is to use your mind. Let’s test that theory.

Use nearly any measure – building a relationship, building a house, buying a car, flying in an airplane – the examples are literally endless of ways that every person, regardless of whether they are a person of “faith,” exercises faith in nearly every dimension of their lives. It’s not an issue of faith or no faith, it’s always and only what is the basis or foundation of the faith you have?

Most of us want what’s best for ourselves, as we understand it. And very often we establish our belief system based on our desired lifestyle, not on our convictions, religious or otherwise. If an extravagant lifestyle is my goal, then I need to follow the money. And, if that means I need to cut some corners ethically, morally, or legally, so be it.

Am I suggesting that every person who makes a lot of money fits that description, or that anyone who is not a believer in Jesus will follow that path? Of course not. There are very moral, ethical, and law-abiding people who follow no religious path. So, what am I saying? I’m saying everyone has and follows some system of belief – we are all people of faith. How so?

“Acknowledge His Ways” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

We are creatures of habit who most often follow the path of least resistance unless or until something significant happens to us. Some event, some loss, some person, some opportunity, some _______, that gives us insight we didn’t have that leads us in a way we hadn’t thought we’d ever go, that shapes us into the person we now are.

For purposes of this post, I’m going to assume that our chosen paths of life will either lead us to an understanding of who Jesus is or away from that understanding. We’ll either embrace faith in the risen Lord or we’ll reject His offer of salvation from sin and a home in heaven when we leave this earth.

And yes, I realize it’s not that cut and dried. Many life-changing decisions are made without any knowledge of who Jesus is, not because they reject His claims, but because no one has ever helped them understand what His claims are. And many, if not most “spiritual” or “religious” decisions are not made based on research and study, but on our “heart” or “gut,” based largely on our indoctrination by those in our spheres of influence growing up.

If our parents or those who had authority over us when we were young loved and served Jesus, were Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Jewish or whatever, our initial decisions about “faith” will likely be guided by those whose opinions were most predominant when we were young. And, yes, of course, they could have been positive or negative, leading us toward or away from their convictions, but they nonetheless influenced us.

Jesus is the only sane, intelligent, historically verifiable person who claimed to be God, and the probability of any one person in history fulfilling the 60+ Messianic prophecies that we’re declared hundreds of years before He was born, are astronomical.

Please don’t ignore the evidence that abounds that He is exactly who He claimed to be – God in human flesh, who purposely and willingly sacrificed His life to give us an opportunity to know, love, serve, and spend all eternity with Him. Eternal life taught in the Bible doesn’t begin when we die, it begins the moment we yield our life and allegiance to Jesus by faith.

He’s the only One who opened a window of opportunity to experience life as it was intended to be lived. That’s why it’s so critical that we put our unwavering faith in Him and Him alone.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Before You Press “Send”

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.” (Ephesians 4:15 NLT)

Have you ever said something, then, often before the words cleared your lips, wished you hadn’t said it? Or you see something on Facebook that so enrages you, you respond in anger and hostility, only later to wish you’d never written what you sent? We’ve all been there, but on the other hand, have you ever had an opportunity to hear something for which you had a perfect response, but kept your mouth shut?

In the verse above Paul is giving us a rich and rewarding alternative – “speak the truth in love.” What might that look like? Let me be clear from the outset – Truth, as it’s used in Scripture, has two important dimensions. First, Jesus is the embodiment of all truth. He IS Truth! In John 14:6 Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And the second use of truth that is pertinent to every believer is the Bible, the Sacred Text.

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A new bank teller, wanting to be prepared for her new position, asked: “With so many sophisticated ways to counterfeit currency, how can I possibly recognize what isn’t real?” To which her trainer said: “Train yourself to know what’s real, then compare everything else to that.” There are a lot of “fakes” and lies the devil is seeking to pass as truth in these last days.

Jesus warned us in Mark 13:22: “For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. Watch out! I have warned you about this ahead of time!”

That’s why it’s so critical to read and study God’s written word, the Bible, every day. Before we can speak the truth, we have to know the Truth, but knowing the truth isn’t enough in and of itself. We can push people away from Jesus if we don’t handle His truth – the truth of who He is, what He came to accomplish, and how we should respond – with love.

In our zeal to please the Lord we can cram truth down someone’s throat. We can know and love Jesus and embrace His truth with our whole being and still come across as a kamikaze pilot, like we’re coming in for the proverbial “kill.”

There was a young man I’d literally worked with for months who had been hurt by people of the church. He’d finally begun to open up to me why he was so resistant to coming to church and being open to the claims of Christ. We were talking on my driveway when a guy I’d met a few times came up and without any introduction or having no clue as to how long I’d been working with this young man, began to hammer him with the “truth.”

The words he used were “correct,” but his attitude and approach were abrasive and the young man repelled his words and literally walked away. As hard as I tried, he would never speak to me again. We only get one opportunity to make a first impression, so, especially when it comes to sharing the Truth of the Gospel, we’ve got to carefully and prayerfully follow the Spirit’s leading.

Just like pressing “send” too quickly can have devastating results, we’ve got to be willing to press the “pause” button and carefully consider, not only what we’re going to say, but how our words will be received. To not care about how someone will receive our words is to risk ruining an opportunity for them to receive the Messenger behind our message.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Where Will You Spend Eternity?

“And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)

While this may be a question that’s already been answered for you, there are likely billions of people, many of whom are in your spheres of influence, who never give this question a thought. Why not? Either because it’s just not on their proverbial “radar,” or because they wrongly believe they’ve earned heaven through adherence to their religious belief or religious behavior, or for some they believe they’re going to heaven because of their religious environment.

Others ponder this question with much fear and uncertainty because they have this nagging question that lingers in their mind – “Is my belief strong enough?” or “Am I good enough?” or “Am I believing the right things?” or _______________ and you can fill in the blank. Still others don’t ask the question at all, believing it’s presumptuous to have certainty that we have a home in heaven.

To me it’s similar to asking me if I’m married. Of course, I’m married! How do I know? Because on December 18^th 1993 I pledged my life and love to my beautiful bride. I entered into a lifelong relationship with the woman of my dreams, pledging to love her in sickness and health, whether we’re rich or poor, forsaking all others and clinging to her until death separated us.

Is it any different with our relationship with Jesus? I know I’m going to heaven, not simply because I pledged my life to Him 60 years ago, but because I reaffirmed my love and devotion to Him this morning and each moment as we walk together through whatever this day may bring. What kind of relationship would we have with our spouse or close friend if we never spoke? If we never spent time together? If we didn’t share life?

How would we grow in our love for one another if we never talked about our dreams and aspirations? How meaningful is any relationship without hardship, times of trial, and a desire to work together to make our walk together the best it could possibly be? How boring if we never had a disagreement or misunderstanding? How dull if we never laughed and cried together?

Yes, of course, these are human emotions, but we miss a huge part of our loving Savior if we miss His highs and lows; His laughter and His anger; His heartache and His suffering. But what does this have to do with whether or not we’re going to heaven? Quite a lot actually.

Unless you don’t have a choice, would you pledge yourself to someone to love a lifetime without knowing them? Without experiencing what kind of person they were? Whether they shared your values, desires, dreams, devotions? How can we NOT know we’re going to heaven when every day we share every waking moment with the lover of our soul? Our aspiration is to follow Him, obey Him, submit to His authority in our lives. Why? Because He IS our life! To be alive is to be available to serve and honor Him with everything we are or ever hope to be.

To be chosen by Him to live His life in and through us is life’s greatest privilege, but to miss Him here, on earth, is to miss life, not only here but throughout eternity. Eternal life begins, not when we literally die a physical death, but when we die to ourselves through our second birth into the family of God. Baptism illustrates our being lowered into our watery grave, then rising to new life in Jesus alone.

He IS our life! Without Jesus there is no life – here or in heaven. Heaven holds no appeal except it’s the home of my Savior and Lord. He’s with me here through the ministry of His Holy Spirit and will be with me in heaven when I will be able to see Him as He sees me.

It’s really pretty simple to know where you’ll spend eternity. Ask yourself: “Who owns my heart?” If it’s Jesus you’re going to heaven. But if it’s anyone or anything else, you’re likely not going to heaven.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Taking Responsibility for Your Own Heart

“That is why I use these parables, for they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” (Matthew 13:13 NLT)

Is it too much of an understatement to say there are things about God we can’t understand? And is it too great a stretch to believe there are things about ourselves that we don’t know, don’t understand, or haven’t yet even discovered? Life, on some levels, is like a parable and, like people who listened to Jesus, sometimes we hear without understanding and see without making sense of what we see.

It’s so easy for me to listen to the words of others, but not “hear” what they’re saying. Sometimes I hear anger instead of desperation; insult rather than a plea for help; opposition rather than a cry for inclusion. Is it safe to say we don’t always say what we mean, or, at least, say it in a way that doesn’t accurately convey what we want others to hear?

In some ways we want to escape responsibility for our own life. How so? As children much of our behavior was deflected onto our parents, for good or ill, and, as God’s children, there’s sometimes a part of us that would wish that could still happen. We sin, consistently breaking our Father’s heart, but rather than take responsibility for our own wrongdoing, we give excuse. “Afterall,” we reason, “I’m only following the dictates of my sinful nature. I can’t help but be me!”

In some ways that’s like saying: “The accident wasn’t my fault; the other driver should have gotten out of my way when I ran the red light.” What’s my point? Sometimes we want to pretend that someone else should take charge of our heart and make us do what only we can. We allow addictions to rule our lives but blame others because we can’t stop.

It happens in our closest relationships, especially marriage. We ignore the obvious until they, at least in our minds, become insurmountable problems. Janel Breitenstein wrote: “And even if your marriage is never resurrected, even if you find more things about your spouse you need to forgive rather than feel grateful for, thank God you can trust Him for the things you can change: In Him, you have the power to take responsibility for your own heart. Maybe that seems to set the bar low. Or is it only getting started, just tipping up our chins to spy God’s goodness?”

Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” It always scares me when someone says: “I’m just going to follow my heart.” The only hope for the human heart is to yield it to Jesus. That’s the only way we’ll ever find the strength, wisdom, and resource to take responsibility for our own heart. What does that even mean? What does it mean to take responsibility for our own heart?

What does it mean to take responsibility for anything? If I take responsibility for my neighbor’s dog, what does that look like? Doesn’t it clearly imply that I would care for that dog as if it were my own? That I would do everything in my power to take care of its needs? To make decisions on its behalf that would assure its safety and wellbeing?

By God’s grace, as we yield our hearts to Jesus, by His Spirit’s direction, He gives us the resource of wisdom and strength to do what we can’t in and of ourselves. We can, as He flows in and through us, do for ourselves what is in our best interest. By taking responsibility for our own heart we can turn from sin and addictive behaviors, habits that distract from obedience to the Lord, and replace them with the development of godly disciplines that will change the trajectory of our lives forever. We can, if we will.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What’s Your View?

“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (Matthew 13:43 NLT)

While on a mission’s trip to Mexico a few of us decided to maximize our free time by climbing a mountain. Our time was limited so we wanted to get as high as we could in the time we had. At first it was slow going as we made our way through heavy foliage, but when we finally emerged into an open area we were above the clouds and could see for miles.

C.S. Lewis in The Magician’s Nephew wrote: “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.” So often in the pursuit of our days activities we don’t take time to evaluate where we’re standing, in terms of our vantage as a child of God. While one person may see a setback, a person of God may see a window of opportunity.

As children of God there are two very important lessons we need to learn and the sooner we learn them the clearer our vision of God becomes. First, nothing enters our lives except it passes through the filter of God’s permission; therefore, for a child of God there is no such thing as an accident. And, secondly, there’s never one second of our life that God is not with us and for us.

Whether we view our lives from the perspective of standing alone or with God makes a world of difference in the interpretation of what we see, hear, and experience as children of God. When your marriage fails, you lose your job, a person you love leaves, gets sick, or dies, we’re passed over for a promotion – the list is endless of ways Satan seeks to cause us to believe we’ve been abandoned and are now alone.

To the extent you believe his lies, to that extent Satan will render you useless in your effectiveness for the Lord. Janel Breitenstein is a frequent contributor to the Family Life devotional I read each day. She writes: “Maybe your marriage as a whole has not turned out to be what you hoped. But what if at least parts of it are worthy of appreciating? What things in your marriage do you take for granted that would be someone else’s vacation, someone else’s greener grass? Perhaps you can find gratitude in that your marriage is based on Judeo-Christian values, rather than oppressive value systems still in place in other parts of the world. Or your family can eat regular meals and every member is literate, or you have married by choice.”

From where I stand, I have the best wife, best kids, most beautiful granddaughter, best friends, I live in the best neighborhood, serve together with the best believers at the best church in the best city in the world. My great Savior maximizes my life to enable me to see the best in people and take advantage of the best opportunities to be the best man of God I can possibly be. What’s your view?

Is your tendency to see the proverbial cup half full or half empty? Do you feel like everyone, including God, owes you? Do you believe you deserve much more appreciation, a much higher level job, marriage, place in your company, your family, your church? If that’s the case, you’re not following the Jesus I know. The Jesus of the Bible washed dirty feet, put everyone else ahead of Himself, went hungry so others could eat, loved so passionately He laid down His sinless life so that scoundrels like me and you could have a shot at living a life we don’t deserve.

May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the grandeur and majesty of our Savior, that we may see the undeserved and unparalleled privilege we have to be His slave.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Have You Conquered Yourself?

“Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city.” (Proverbs 16:32 NLT)

Conquering ourselves is the hardest battle we face as human beings. It’s ironic that we can easily see problems in others, even including solutions for “their” issues, but when it comes to the person in the mirror, it seems our hands are tied. Why do you think that is? Could it be we can’t see our shortcomings because we’re blind to how they’re hurting, not only ourselves, but others?

Ron Hutchcraft wisely wrote: “What about that volcano temper that erupts briefly but scars permanently? How about that chainsaw mouth that rips even the people we love. That selfishness that insists ‘I’m more important than you are.’ The passions that cheapen sex, imprison your imagination. Those dark feelings that take us to some very bad places. The addiction that’s calling the shots.”

The most difficult “animal” to tame is our mind, from which comes every problem we’ll ever need to solve. Our mind, or what the Bible often refers to as our “heart,” is the minefield that gives direction to everything we think, say, do, or are.

In Matthew 12:35 Jesus said: “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” And please don’t misunderstand, we have no goodness in and of ourselves. A genuinely “good” person is someone who has yielded their lives to the Lordship of Jesus, but does that mean unsaved people aren’t capable of any goodness? Of course not.

Every human being is made in the image of God, which means we have the capacity for God-like characteristics; however, sin distorts and destroys God’s image unless and until we give our allegiance to Jesus, who is the embodiment of all goodness. When we become children of God by virtue of our second birth spiritually, the Holy Spirit indwells us, thus amplifying God’s goodness in and through us.

Without Jesus we’re powerless to tame the wild spirit that reigns in us. He alone has authority to conquer the evil habits and inclinations with which we will battle ‘til our dying breath. But to the degree we give ourselves to the sway of the Holy Spirit, to that degree we’ll be freed to be all Jesus died to enable us to become.

Ron Hutchcraft wrote: “The Christian life is a moment-by-moment miracle, lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the joy and peace of Christ and reproduces them in and through our lives. He takes the love of Christ and manifests it through us.”

Conquering sin and self is a lifelong battle, one that demands our dependence on Jesus every moment of every day. The common adage that says “We’re our own worst enemy,” seems never more true than when we’re seeking to be all we can be for our heavenly Father. The closer I get to Jesus and the more passionately I desire to be like Him, the more areas He points out that need His attention.

As the Lord enables us to win one battle only to face another, our tendency is to get discouraged, but therein lies the victory of perseverance. Those who aspire to be marathon runners don’t start by running 20 miles, but typically begin to train in the gym, conditioning their body and preparing their heart and lungs and legs, so that when they begin with short runs they don’t damage critical muscles or strain their body in other ways.

Similarly, conquering sin and overcoming the enemy of our soul, while we’ll never achieve final victory until we leave our body of clay, is a moment-by-moment process that draws us to Jesus and enables us to become more like Him. It’s well worth the effort it takes to be conquerors for His honor and fame.

Blessings, Ed 😊