Walking With Jesus

Distractions

“I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.” (1 Corinthians 7:35 NLT)

What distracts you? When you’re trying to focus on reading or studying God’s Word what is the “something else” that begs you to give it your attention? When you’re trying to focus on prayer, where do your thoughts want to take you?

Life is filled with distractions, but that doesn’t mean they’re all bad. The context of Paul’s writing above is whether we should marry or remain single. Paul was single and was seeking to give his rationale for why others should consider singleness rather than to be married, but he wasn’t saying it was a sin to marry. He was simply saying when we join our lives with another person, whether in marriage, business, friendship, or otherwise, we run the risk of creating a serious distraction to our devotion to the Lord.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “distract” means: “to draw (the attention or mind) to a different object; to stir up or confuse with conflicting emotions or motives; harass.” How does that apply? Jon Bloom wrote: “Distractions frequently tell us what we love and trust and fear.”

What do you love? I love Jesus, but I also love my wife, my kids, my dogs, sleep, video games, and pinto beans and cornbread. So, what does that have to do with distractions? It depends. I think of the disciples asleep in the Garden when Jesus was agonizing over what He was about to do in obedience to His Father. Is sleep a sin? Of course not, but in that context, it was a major distraction to what the Lord was asking them to do.

Discipline in submitting our will to God’s, our desires to His, our preferences to His, is the battle all believers face, but it’s not one where a single solution fits every scenario. What’s appropriate for someone in a single scenario may be completely inappropriate in another.

For example, let’s say you’re sitting comfortably doing something that you enjoy when your wife comes to you and says: “I had a really lousy day today. Could we go out or get carry-out instead of me cooking this evening?” It would be rude and inappropriate to say, “Sorry, honey, love of my life, I’d swim the broadest ocean or climb the highest mountain to prove my love for you, but I’m really interested in what I’m doing. You can get takeout if you want, but don’t bother me right now.” How do you spell: “frying pan over the head?”

Most husbands wouldn’t dare do that, but, ironically, we do that to Jesus all the time. We rudely ignore His invitations to spend time with Him, opting instead to do something trivial that we like to do. I get it. I do, but that’s why disciplines are formed in the Christian Faith, to help prevent us from robbing God of His rightful time with us. And what time is that? Every second of every day!

“Whoa! I can’t do that!” Jesus did, and so can we with some discipline. “But how?” By learning to give more attention to the Holy Spirit than our own inclinations, desires, and cravings. “But that sounds hard!” Not as hard as hanging on a Cross for ungrateful and undisciplined people like me and you!

When are we going to understand that until our relationship with Jesus costs us something it’s not going to mean anything – to us or to anyone else?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Faith and Holiness

“Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14 NLT)

What comes first to mind when you think of holiness or being holy? Long skirts or dresses and women’s hair in a bun or with a big hat is the picture that comes to my mind. Stuffiness, exclusivity, pride, are often the outward expressions of a person who thinks they are holy.

While I was away a guest speaker with a Holiness background came to speak in my absence. When he found out our worship leader was from a different denomination, he refused to be on the same platform with him. That’s not holiness, that’s sin and it breaks the heart of God.

Holiness doesn’t separate; it unites the hearts of those who love Jesus with a bond that’s stronger than flesh and blood. I have brothers and sisters in Christ who are closer than blood family to me. The Lord Jesus creates in those who love Him an inseparable, unbreakable bond of love that is formed by our mutual love for our Savior.

Jerry Bridges nailed it when he wrote: “Faith and holiness are inextricably linked.” I love that: “inextricably linked.” It’s essentially a bond that cannot be broken under any circumstance. That, in my mind, is what holiness is designed by God to do – unite His people, giving us a common mission grounded in faith in our Savior whose love for and devotion to we also hold in common.

Holiness literally means to be set apart for sacred use. It speaks of the instruments that were used to prepare and offer the sacrifices on the altar for the forgiveness of sins in the Old Testament. It’s the picture painted by our perfect Savior as He hung on Calvary’s Cross, sinless, yet, bearing the sins of all the world.

Genuine faith in the living Christ doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, divide us as believers, but should unite us in our mutual love and devotion to the One who gave everything for the sake of our redemption. Holiness, in my mind, as I understand it’s Biblical meaning, shouldn’t create lines of separation, but should break down walls that divide God’s people.

My being set apart by God for sacred use doesn’t make me better than anyone else, it simply makes me more pliable in my Master’s hands. When seen in its proper context, our relationship with God is servant to Master, slave, actually. We don’t make demands of God. He’s the One who gives us directives and we’re all equal as we kneel before His holy throne.

To believe our holiness makes us better than anyone else is to misunderstand the meaning of grace and to distort our value, not only to the Kingdom of God, but to God Himself. Holiness should enrich our love and increase our desire to serve in any capacity that would please God and help someone else. Holiness, ideally, sets us apart from sin, not from each other.

Because I love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength doesn’t make me better than anyone else, it just makes me a more useful tool in the capable hands of my Master. Holiness is a good word, and a blessed privilege of every faith-filled believer in Jesus. It should humble us, not make us proud. Unite us in service, not divide us.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Emerald Green Hearts

“So the Lord must wait for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help.” (Isaiah 30:18 NLT)

God never fails! Man, and machines fail, but God never does. The Psalmist captures the heart of the matter when he writes in Psalm 111:1-4: “Praise the Lord! I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with His godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them. Everything He does reveals His glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails. He causes us to remember His wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our Lord!”

Why do we worry and fret? Is anything too hard for God? When the Lord told Abraham that his elderly wife, far beyond the normal years of conception, would become pregnant, Sarah laughed. In Genesis 18:12 the Bible says: “So she laughed silently to herself and said, ‘How could a worn-out old woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master – my husband – is also so old?’”

It was in that context that the Lord said in verse 14: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” with the clear implication: ABSOLUTELY NOT! So, again I ask: “Why do we worry and fret about the problems we face in our life?” Of course, life is hard, God never promised us it wouldn’t be. In John 15 and 16 Jesus outlines the reason life, especially for those who love Him, will be stressful and hard – because we are not greater than our Master.

Jesus’ life was hard once He declared who He was and began to speak and live the truth, and it will be for us when our whole life’s orientation is to be like Jesus. I don’t know the Author, but one of the entries in my calendar devotional said: “The greenest grass is found wherever the most rain falls. So I suppose it is the fog and mist of Ireland that makes it ‘the Emerald Isle.’ And wherever you find the widespread fog of trouble and the mist of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts that are full of the beautiful foliage of the comfort and love of God.”

The very reason for the troubles of our life isn’t to make us bitter, but to make us better – more like Jesus than we’d ever be if life was easy and we never faced adversity. Yes, of course, it’s too hard for us; otherwise, there’d be no need for faith. Why lean on God if we can handle it ourselves? Life can be tragic, painful, debilitating, but that’s life – EVERYONE faces those kinds of challenges.

It’s not the fact we face hardships and trials that’s the issue, it’s that we can face them with faith, confidence that our pain isn’t random or apart from the notice of God. The Lord is faithful and will NEVER leave us without His comforting presence. In the hardest, most heart-wrenching seasons of my life, though there were times I felt isolated, alone, forgotten, the Lord ALWAYS let me know I wasn’t.

Emerald green hearts don’t “grow” in the sunshine, only in the rain, fog, and mist of suffering, heartache, and pain. If this life was all there was we’d be among all mankind most to be pitied for our “worthless” faith, but this life is NOT the end and God WILL have the final word on our pain.

None of us knows what the future holds, except we know it’s good for those who know, love, and are seeking with all their heart to serve the Lord Jesus. Though our body is weak and can give out, our faith is strong and vibrant, knowing our living God is in control and that He NEVER FAILS!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Perspective

“But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.” (1 John 4:4-6 NLT)

The first time I flew I wanted a window seat, and I had my camera in hand. It was a very cloudy, rainy day, and the sun was completely hidden. But as the plane broke through the clouds, the sun was bright and all I could see were puffy, pillow-like clouds. It was breathtaking, a sight I’d never seen before, an opportunity for me to gain a new perspective on the majesty and magnificence of Almighty God.

Perspective is a value that’s grossly underrated in the day in which we now live. We get so locked in on our perspective of things we too often fail to realize there are many others whose views of life are quite different from our limited and too often very narrow view. For example, overtime we begin to believe that all Christians are just like us. They think like us, act like us, believe like us, sing the same songs, love the same translation of the Bible, have the same traditions, view doctrine like us, in short, are just models of us.

But the plot thickens when we make the shift from simply thinking they’re like us to believing they SHOULD be like us and therein lies a very big danger. The God of heaven loves diversity. If He’d wanted us to all be alike, that’s how He would have made us.

Did you realize there are more than 400 species of sharks and 17,500 species of butterflies? So? So, why would we expect the Lord to make one kind of follower? Our church has over 50 language groups represented in our family and it’s a slice of heaven. When we sing together, we raise our voices to one Father, one Savior, one Redeemer, one Lord, but we’re all very different!

Yet, our experience of Him is as unique as each of us is unique. God doesn’t have a “one-size-fits-all” view of us. He loves us uniquely, as if we were His only child. He knows us individually and understands our needs like no one else can. God doesn’t make rash statements of condemnation, He understands exactly who deserves condemnation and who doesn’t, and He treats us each accordingly.

A quote from Darlow Sargeant was included in a devotional calendar that I have where he wrote: “People will know that you live in a constant state of anxiety by the lines on your face, the tone of your voice, your negative attitude, and the lack of joy in your spirit. So scale the heights of a life abandoned to God, and your perspective will change to the point that you will look down on the clouds beneath your feet.”

That’s the perspective I long to have! How about you? “A life abandoned to God.” What do you envision when you think about that? To me it means freedom from anxiety, relaxation in the strong arms of my Savior as He undergirds and supports me in every endeavor, every need, fear, sorrow, confrontation, or concern. Its life lived in harmony with the Lord of my life who owns me and has my best interests in His heart and mind.

I’m not a shark, butterfly, or bird, but I know my heavenly Father watches over me.

That’s my perspective.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why Trials?

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT)

Could it be our faith as Jesus followers in the United States of America is so weak because we face so few real trials? The writer of the Hebrew letter gives us insight when he wrote: “But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35b-38 NLT)

“Yeh, but that was during Bible times. People aren’t treated like that today.” Do you not realize that more people are being martyred for Christ today than ever before? More than 365 million believers live under the constant threat of persecution and death. We must get our heads out of the proverbial “sand” and see what’s happening in our world.

In America we’re lax in our Christian disciplines, rarely reading our Bible or taking our precious time away from our pleasures to spend five minutes in prayer. We’re not persecuted because our faith isn’t strong enough to merit it. We’re not a threat to anyone. Would to God we could spend an hour with a brother or sister in a persecuted land.

Currently I’m reading a book I would highly encourage you to read. It’s The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun, a contemporary Chinese Christian brother who has been through unimaginable torture for the cause of Christ, yet continues to glorify and honor the Lord through his powerful life and testimony.

According to Peter in the verses above, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine.” Every day I marvel that the Lord allows me to continue bearing His Holy Name with the small measure of commitment I display in and through my life.

While in Guatemala on a Mission’s trip, a few of us from America stood in a small hut like church that had been rebuilt by the widows of the men who had originally built it. Anti-Christian rebels came to the church during a service, gathered all the men, bound them, poured gasoline over them and burned them to death forcing their families to watch. In the strength only the Holy Spirit can give, these precious women of God stood strong together and defied the forces of evil and rebuilt the church where their husbands had died rather than deny their Lord.

What is it going to take before we get serious about our faith? It’s coming, dear frightened believer, sooner than any of us want to imagine. The only way to be prepared is intimacy with Jesus. There is no fear in His presence. He never leaves us or forsakes us. May we, by His grace, determine to never leave Him regardless of threats to our life or safety.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed (*Please read Brother Yun’s book)

What Time Is It?

“The Lord rescues the godly; He is their fortress in times of trouble. The Lord helps them, rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them, and they find shelter in Him.” (Psalm 37:39-40 NLT)

You’ve likely heard what to me is alarming news that a radical socialist, Zohran Mamdani, won the Democratic primary and is now the clear frontrunner to become the next mayor of New York City. His victory comes despite his unashamed endorsement of failed socialist policies such as government-run grocery stores, stiff tax hikes, and communist-style rent control housing that are nightmares waiting to materialize.

Additionally, he has openly embraced the slogan “globalize the intifada” calling for global violence in support of Islam. If this isn’t a wake-up call for America and the world, I don’t know what is. Behind his smiling face and seeming “concern” for the poor, is an evil intent set on changing life on earth as we now know it.

Is this a call to panic? Of course not! It’s a call to prayer. Think about it, when are we most prone to seek prayer? When things turn south! When the phone rings and the doctor’s diagnosis is very negative, when the surgery we thought would help leads not to a better life, but to tragic outcome.

Why can we not see the essential nature of prayer when things are good? Why must we wait until the world is seeming to spin out of control? NEWS FLASH! It’s never out of God’s control, and He’s the only One who can bring about any lasting change, not only in the world, but in our individual lives.

Dr. Michael L. Brown gets my attention when he writes: “Far too many preachers today are playing a lullaby when they need to be sounding an alarm.” Of course I’m not advocating preachers forsake their responsibility to preach the Gospel and seek to guide their people in growing up in Christ, but part of spiritual development is being mindful of our key role in praying for the needs that personally affect us, including the radical and demonic activities that affect life on planet earth.

When I read about a man like Mamdani I wonder if he might be a type of anti-Christ that is being allowed to gain a following that the Lord might use to usher in the end times and the coming of our blessed Redeemer. Even so, Lord Jesus come!

In the meantime, we are losing loved ones and friends who are on a course leading them straight to hell unless and until you and I determine to take or maintain our responsibility to pray much more seriously. Honestly, I’ve read Revelation, and I know how all this ends. I don’t fear what’s coming, I invite it, but my concern, as yours if you’re devoted to the Lord Jesus, is the fate of our family and friends.

Mamdani and his like will stand before the Lord the same as each of us, but given the track record of jihadist policies and those who promote them, it’s not looking good for him from an eternal perspective. We must pray for Mr. Mamdani, as we pray for those who torment godly Jesus followers across our world, asking the Lord to change their hearts and minds and allow them to see the compassion and mercy of the Lord Jesus before it’s eternally too late.

This is not a time to panic. It’s a time to pray…earnestly!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Theology’s Greatest Danger

“Then He said to Thomas, ‘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!’ ‘My Lord and my God!’ Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, ‘You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.’” (John 20:27-29 NLT)

If you believe in Jesus, why do you believe? What was it for you that nudged, pushed, or dragged you over the line of faith? Unlike Thomas you didn’t see His physical presence, yet you DID see Him with your eye of faith; otherwise, you wouldn’t be a believer.

Theology is a word that literally means “God words” or “words about God.” As a student in a literal “School of Theology,” I learned the difference between religion and Theology; the sources of Theology; erroneous sources of Theology, and on and on about what it was and wasn’t; why it was important, and what I needed to understand about it if I was going to be a Pastor.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

You know what happens to a lot of “Theology” students? They get so intrigued with words about God, they lose their focus on God. Kelly Kapic touched on this when he wrote: “One of the greatest dangers in theology is making our faith something we discuss rather than something that moves us.”

Do you think Thomas was “moved” when Jesus appeared to him? My sense is Thomas’ knees hit the floor before he had a chance to think about what he should do. He may have been face down, ashamed he ever doubted. I can see Jesus gently cupping Thomas’ face in His strong hands, inviting him to stand, allowing him to do what he now knows he doesn’t need to do.

What about you? Have you “seen” Him? I’ve never seen Him like Thomas did, with my physical eyes, but I “see” Him every day with my eye of faith. He’s just as alive and real to me and millions of others, as He was on that day for Thomas.

We can read books about Him, but all the words in the world won’t make Him “visible” to our spirit until we recognize Him as our Lord and God. Jesus is so much more than God of Creation, Lord of history, Savior of the world, though He is all of those things. To me He is “MY LORD and MY GOD!” as He was for Thomas and the other Disciples.

Theology will never truly make sense until you understand Who it’s about and how He personally loves you. The most profound lesson Theology can teach us is this: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” In a very real sense, that’s all you need to understand to begin your journey of faith in the God of the Bible.

He’s real! He’s alive! He loves – you and me and every person who has ever lived or ever will live. He can’t help it, it’s just who He is. Please click on the highlighted link and watch this brief description of our King of Kings by Dr. S.M. Lockridge. You’ll be soooooo glad you did!

Blessings, Ed 😊

Change the Way You Think

“We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NCV)

*This article was written by Pastor Rick Warren and published on 05-21-2025.I think it is just too good not to share. Please read carefully and pass on to those you believe will benefit from reading these helpful words. Blessings, Ed 😊

Here’s the secret to temptation: Don’t fight it. Refocus—because whatever you resist persists.

Did you know that the Bible doesn’t tell you to resist temptation? It says to resist the devil, and that’s a whole different issue. But the key to overcoming temptation is not to push back. It’s to change your focus.

Whatever gets your attention gets you. The battle for sin always starts in the mind. That’s why the Bible says in Psalm 119:6, “Thinking about your commands will keep me from doing some foolish thing” (CEV). Why? Because if you’re thinking about God’s truth, you’re not thinking about other things—like temptations!

It’s true in every single area of life—good or bad. If you focus on godly things, your mind will begin to naturally gravitate towards them. If you focus on worldly or negative things, your mind will begin to naturally move in that direction. Whatever you focus on gets your attention. And whatever gets your attention, gets you.

The key is to change your mind.

Temptation always follows a predictable pattern: attention, activation, and action. Your mind gets hooked, your mind kicks in and emotions come into play, and then you act on it.

So instead of trying to fight a temptation; turn your mind to something else. “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NCV).

After Jesus was baptized and went into the wilderness for 40 days, Satan tried to tempt him by saying, “Tell these stones to become bread” Matthew 4:3 (NIV). Jesus didn’t say, “Oh, no I’m not hungry.” He was hungry! He’d been fasting for forty days. But he turned his mind to something else. He quoted the Bible. He said, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4 NLT).

The more you fight a particular temptation, the more it controls you. You can’t fight a feeling, but you can choose to focus on other things. When you do, the feeling loses its attraction because your attention is on something else.

Capturing every thought and turning it to Christ takes lots of practice. You can’t always control your circumstances, and you definitely can’t always control the way you feel. But you can control what you think about. That’s always your choice.

And if you change the way you think, it changes the way you feel, and that will change the way you act.

Talk It Over

What do you spend your time thinking about? Where does your mind wander when you’re not focused on something specific?
In what situations do you know your mind will focus on things that will cause you to sin?
How can you train yourself so that it is more natural for you to focus on God’s Word and truth instead of the things of this world?

Undivided Presence

“For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” (Hebrews 9:24 ESV)

What does it mean to be in someone’s presence? To my point in this article, it means to be “face-to-face” with the one with whom we’re speaking; to be able to have physical contact, to shake their hand or give them a hug; the ability to make eye contact, to see one another’s responses and reactions as they speak with one another; to know one another and find joy in one another’s presence.

I can tell you I was in Chuck Colson’s presence or Billy Graham’s presence, and while I wouldn’t be lying, I’d be exaggerating. I was in the same room with them, but they didn’t know me from Adam. It’s not the same as what I’m inferring in this message.

To be in God’s presence is to have an audience of ONE with Almighty God. He has the capacity to sit with us and love us as if we were the only person in the universe. There is a sense in which when Jesus died on the Cross, if you’d been the only one who needed a Savior, He would have died just for you. That’s how much you’re loved; that’s how much you mean to God!

The privilege of God’s undivided presence with us is a gift given to anyone willing to take the time and make the effort to let it happen. God is always willing, so, whether it happens rests on us. Are you willing? Before you answer, think of the implications of a “sit down” with God.

Perhaps many of us would jump at the chance to sit and speak with the Lord of Creation. We have this long list of complaints and questions we think we’d like to bring before Him, but it’s my sense that we have little frame of reference to understand what it’s like to sit in the presence of pure love. Think of those, like the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43ff) who came up behind Him wishing only to touch the hem of His robe, or the young man in Mark 10:17 who knelt in reverence to the Lord.

My guess is if we really thought about it, we’d be speechless in His awesome presence, so in awe of Him whatever questions we thought we had would be gone. But that’s essentially the attitude I believe we need to approach Him, waiting for Him to acknowledge us and allow us to speak. I’ve grown so accustomed to relying on His presence, His voice, His directives in my life that I sometimes apologize to Him and ask Him to forgive me for presuming I have the right to rush into His presence as a small child into the presence of their father.

But He assures me that’s exactly what He wants us to do. He’s given us that privilege, and it saddens Him that so few take advantage of the opportunity to find an audience with Him. Please, if that’s you, get over yourself, come humbly, but boldly into your Father’s presence, knowing He is waiting with open arms to hold you, listen to you, love you, and meet your needs.

Do you have questions? He’s a great listener, but I have a feeling being in His presence will answer a lot of them. It’s amazing how many questions are answered by loving acceptance, grace, and kindness. And here’s the best part: He NEVER leaves you! So? That means you are ALWAYS in His presence, which means whatever your need, whenever it occurs, He’s not distant; He’s as close as your breath.

Speak to Him. He’s always listening.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Life in Christ

“And Christ lives within you, so even through your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” (Romans 8:10-11 NLT)

It’s ironic on some levels that the life within us isn’t our own, but He who gave us physical life in the beginning. What are the implications? Physical life is existence and constitutes the presence of the ability to function as a human being without being plugged into the source of real life, the Lord Jesus Christ. In some ways it’s like being a “moon” who has no light of its own. It’s “alive,” in the sense that it exists, but without the light of the sun few would even notice it.

That’s how many people on planet earth go through their day – unnoticed, blank faces plastered on a wall with billions of other faces no one recognizes, or cares exist. At least that’s how they feel about themselves. The fact is, Jesus came to earth to change all of that.

To Him, EVERY face matters! When He hung on the Cross, every face passed before Him and He made the conscious decision to die for each one. Every life matters, even the ones that are snuffed out before they draw their first breath. Your life matters! The Lord Jesus, Creator of all that is, knows your name and cares about every detail of your life.

He died for you. That’s how much He loves you. He so desires for you to know Him and love Him in return. It’s not that He needs your love. He doesn’t. He doesn’t need anything. But He knows that when we plug into His eternal life it brings light and life to us that is available in no other way. We can be given a fresh new start and can learn what it means to be alive and in love with the Author of life.

Frederick P. Wood gives us clues as to what that can look like when he wrote: “Ask the Lord to make your life a glory to him, a menace to the devil, a strength to your church, and a witness to the world.” Think about the impact our life could have if our life was a glory to Him. What might that look like?

What comes to mind when you think of the word “glory?” Honor, praise, credit, renown. The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary suggests “resplendence” or “magnificence.” How might we have to live to render those kinds of considerations to our Lord and Master? Selfless, dependent (upon Him), loving, kind, caring, considerate, compassionate, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led.

It would have to be a life lived in total surrender to His will, knowing that every detail of our life matters as it relates to how we reflect His life being lived out in and through us. Our life should be a menace to the devil as a dripping faucet is to a homeowner, but how? By constantly staying in tune with our Savior, desiring His will above our own. Marching to the beat of His desires.

We are a glory to God additionally, by being a strength to our church, but how? By being more than an attender! By being a “belonger!” What does that mean? It means being a part of the family by doing our part. Getting involved in serving the needs of others in and through our church. Volunteering to work or serve in ways that may stretch us spiritually. Support your church financially and with positive reports about them to others.

That’s an important way we are a positive witness to the world, as well as sharing our love of the Lord with others with our words and deeds. These are just a few ways we can give visibility to our life in Christ.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊