Tag Archives: Psalms

Spirit of Christmas: Keeping it all year (Pt 2)

Posted on January 22, 2016 by | Comments Off on Spirit of Christmas: Keeping it all year (Pt 2)

Spirit of Christmas

Earlier this month, we shared the most important part of keeping the spirit of Christmas throughout the year – a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way to strengthen the spirit of Christmas within our lives. Jesus must be the foundation upon which everything in our life is built. But this is not where the maintaining of the spirit of Christmas ends, but it is the beginning. The next thing that as Christians, we must do, is to be diligent in seeking Him and His will for each day of our lives. We do this each time we fellowship with the Lord through our personal devotional time. Our personal devotional time is where we spend time reading the Bible, praying to our Lord, and in singing of songs and praises. We cannot completely serve Him or diligently seek after Him if we do not spend this personal time in fellowship with the Lord.

Spirit of Christmas: a time of personal devotion

The apostle Paul understood the importance of seeking the Lord’s will in all that he did and through his writings, urges Christians today the same as he did during his time on Earth. He wrote to the Christians in Ephesus:  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3). Paul is calling for us to walk worthily in our vocation – and as Christians our vocation is what the Lord has called us to do beginning with sharing the gospel with all those we meet. And just as we all try to learn all we can and seek to improve our performance at our jobs, we should seek to learn all we can about the vocation the Lord has called us to serve. Just as we expect our doctors, mechanics, and plumbers to know what we are doing, we should equally strive to know, to master the callings of our faith.

This is exactly the sentiment Paul wrote in a letter to Timothy: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). As I have shared in previous blogs, it wasn’t until 2006 that I came to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior; it was the result of me making studying the Bible intensely and purposefully. I set out to study the Bible just as I was studying the materials for graduate school. As we begin to seek God’s will in our life, as we begin to study the scriptures, and as we begin to accept the Lordship of Jesus in our life, the Holy Spirit will begin to teach us and to mold us into what we need to be.

Spirit of Christmas: bearing fruit for Jesus

As we seek after the Lord and truly begin to commune with Him on a more personal level each day, we will begin to see the Holy Spirit work in our lives. We will become more familiar with the things of the Lord and we will be able to understand the spiritual need of others, just as others have prayed for ours. The Lord finds our spiritual growth pleasing as our lives begin to reflect the love of Christ and become more fruitful. Jesus even told us that He wants our faith in Him to bear fruit; that the fruit we produce will be meaningful and lasting. Jesus taught this very thing to those around Him that day as He said: Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you (John 15:15-16).

Again, Paul reaffirms the teachings of Christ, urging those early Christians in Colossus: For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 0 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:9-10). Not only are we to seek out what the Lord would have us do, to do it to the best of our abilities, but we are to pray, according to Paul’s example here, that others may also be “filled with knowledge” – or to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit. It is through our daily fellowship with the Lord where we truly are taught by the Holy Spirit and where we will begin to bear fruit for our Lord and Savior.

Continued on the next page —>

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Night is approaching; Christ’s light shines brighter

Posted on December 21, 2015 by | Comments Off on Night is approaching; Christ’s light shines brighter

Night is approachingNight is approaching but many Christians remain confused about what the night actually is. Some will try to equate darkness and night with the trials, tribulations, and temptations we endure as Christians. While it can certainly be said that these are real spiritual storms, in no means are they the same as when Jesus told the disciples, I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work (John 9:4). Later, He would expand on this earlier teaching and as recorded in scripture, Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them (John 12:35-36).

A storm may bring darkened skies but storms never last

Night is approaching but it is important to understand it is not the same as a spiritual storm. Spiritual storms are nothing more than a crisis of our faith where we are faced with a temptation, a trial, or maybe even the Lord’s chastisement. I think of the verse in Genesis where God, after delivering Noah and his family through a mighty storm, made this promise: And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud (Genesis 9:14). God had made a few promises to Noah that included the storm would pass, He would be there to help them through, and when it was over, He would be there at the end of the flood to welcome them with the promise of the rainbow. As Christians, we are given the same offer when the storms of life come. He offers to see us through the storm, He offers to be there with us in the midst of the storm, and He promises that we have a home in Heaven with Him when our life’s journey is done. Storms always end and the results are we can be closer to the Lord, our faith can be strengthened, and we can rejoice knowing He has given us the victory!

Night is approaching: Encroaching spiritual wickedness

The apostle Paul understood the approaching darkness and wickedness even during his lifetime as he warned the early Christians in Ephesus: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). The phrase, rulers of darkness, really stands out and defines exactly what the darkness is. Within the Old Testament, there are several verses that explain what the darkness is: A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness (Job 10:22), Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it (Job 3:4), He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail (1 Samuel 2:9), and They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course (Psalms 82:5). 

Even Jesus spoke of the darkness: When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness (Luke 22:53). Within the gospel of John, the first paragraph explains the reason that Jesus came to dwell among men. The fifth verse is still applicable today:  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:5). John, as led by the Holy Spirit, would later write, This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). The darkness is not the storms we know as trials, temptations, and other testings of our faith, but of the world lost in its sins and rejection of God. It was the wickedness of mankind that gave room to Satan which influenced the religious leaders of the day to desire to put Jesus to death. It was the darkness of the times and the wickedness in high places that led to the beheading of John the Baptist. The darkness and wickedness continued after the death of Jesus to assure the apostles died remarkably horrible deaths in trying to extinguish the presence of Jesus from the memory of man.  Where a storm is there to increase our faith; darkness creeps in to extinguish all influence of the Lord.

Continued on the next page.

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A good start each day is essential

Posted on December 14, 2015 by | Comments Off on A good start each day is essential

good startWe have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Studies have shown that those people who eat a well-balanced breakfast daily do better quality work, are more able to handle the challenges and stresses of the day, and are in better health. Each day, schools across America give a free balanced breakfast to school-aged children so they can focus on learning rather on their hunger. I began thinking over the weekend of not only daily breakfast time at our family home but about what a balanced spiritual breakfast means for the believer.

After 40 days of fasting, Jesus offers advice for the soul

We’ve all read it in our personal devotions, have heard it taught in Sunday school, and even have heard preachers discuss it from the pulpit – the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan after he had spent 40 days fasting and praying in the wilderness. After being tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, Jesus rebuked him, And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Luke 4:4). As I began studying this verse, I remembered what I once heard a small-town radio preacher say – if you want to live in this body you have to feed it; if you want eternal life, you must feed the soul. Feeding this body, bread, as Satan tempted Jesus, would only feed the physical body. When we eat, we are only feeding our physical body; this morning I had scrambled eggs, a couple of turkey sausage patties, and two of the small canned biscuits. While it was a filling and very satisfying breakfast it did nothing for my soul. It simply fed the physical body.

A good start of the day must include fellowship with Jesus

David, described by the author of the Book of Acts; I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will (Acts 13:22c), understood the importance of seeking the Lord early in the day. He wrote, O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is (Psalms 63:1). Solomon wrote on a similar theme, I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me (Proverbs 8:17). God is not talking about those that find Him early in life in this context, but those that wake up with a purpose to find and spend time with the Lord in the very first moments of the day. It takes a great effort to roll out of bed, grab your Bible, and begin reading and praying.  It becomes so easy to roll out of bed with a grunt, turn on the coffee pot, eat breakfast, and next thing you know, you’re already out the door for work without even reading one verse or spending time with the Lord in prayer.

When we truly put the Lord at the beginning of our day it does do a few things. Firstly, it allows us to put Jesus first in everything we do. When we do put the Lord first in our morning routine it changes the way we approach our work, our coworkers, and even our family members. It also allows the Lord to see our determination to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I’m reminded of the testimony of Daniel: Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime (Daniel 6:10). Almost everything I’ve read about Daniel is that he prayed in the morning, evening, and noontime. Even when laws were passed against praying to the Lord, Daniel continued his routine of making the Lord the center of his life. Although we do not know exactly what three times Daniel prayed each day, I do believe that one of the times Daniel prayed was early in the morning before he began his daily routine.

A good start can set the course for the day

I will admit there have been times where I have skipped breakfast in the morning. For whatever reason, I simply didn’t have the time or just forgot to eat. It was those days where it seemed that I was the most distracted and irritable. And there have been times where I made the decision not to read my Bible or spend time in prayer with the Lord before I began my day. Just as skipping breakfast had a real influence of my day, so did skipping my personal, quiet time with the Lord. I have found I am more irritable, I get less work done, and everything seems to bother me. Aches and pains, stiff joints, and even some people, generally speaking, seem to irritate me more. However, when I have spent the time in prayer and personal Bible study in the morning, it is amazing the difference it makes. I can handle challenges and difficulties better, aches and pains seem more tolerable, and I get more done because my attitude towards what needs to be done is better. 

If you’re ready for a real change in your life that will also help your spiritual growth, I would invite you to do a thirty-day challenge – make fellowship with the Lord the first thing you do in the morning. Be ready for Satan to create all kinds of havoc as you begin to adopt a Christ-centered morning routine. Even after you’ve established it, Satan will still try to sabotage your efforts. However, I can tell you from experience that the Lord will honor and richly bless your efforts to become more Christ-focused. 

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