Get In Shape

 

“So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days” (Nehemiah 6:15).

  The enemy doesn’t mind if you are spiritually active. He just doesn’t want you to be spiritually effective. One may be active in church, doctrinally pure, serving on the church board, teaching, etc…. but if one is not involved in the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life then that life is at a minimal. Minimal in church and minimal in the family.

     “What are the spiritual disciplines?” you ask. It is the reverence for God’s Word and the power of effective praying. We owe to Scripture the same reverence we owe to God. The Bible is revered but it is not read. There is low reading of the Bible by believers.

      “Sine qua non” is a Latin phrase which means “without which, nothing.” Without a good diet of Scripture and an exercise in the effectiveness of praying, you’ve got nothing. You and I cannot finish the Christian marathon without true prayer. We cannot even enter the race without the Word of

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  • Mastering Emotions

    “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

    There is a lot out there that can bring sorrow to your heart and life. Sorrow can numb you and cause you to shut down from God and others. We can routinely go through the pain and yet become hardened at the same time. Not realizing that we can limit the Holy One of God in our daily lives, we live withdrawn and tired. We dream about places we love, we long for something to fill, and for people to understand, and we become forlorn and miserable on the inside and it shows.

    Some people are lonely and it’s their own fault. They can live so self-centeredly and become so wrapped up in their own little lives and live as if the world should revolve around them. When we are wrapped about our lives we become a small, tight package that is about us and others are not in the picture except for our criticism.

    The lonely wants friends but usually only has a few, if any. The selfish and lonely person can make a demigod out of himself and not even realize it. He desires a circle of admirers who will compliment and admire him but usually finds he is not surrounded by any. How sad and how lonely we become when it is about us and really no one else. We judge others by our hurt (imagined or real), and we aren’t aware of the real problem.

    There is no life so empty as the self-centered life. There is no life so centered as the self-emptied life. The Lord Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He was despised, rejected, and ridiculed. The only reason we can love others is that first God loved us. When we realize His grace for us and we accept His acceptance of us then we are free to love others and then fellowship happens freely. The life of the believer is free to love unconditionally. What freedom!

    Why do we try to impress others with our gifts that God has given to each of His born-again children? Why do we work so hard for a little slap on the back by someone who notices? Why are we so dissatisfied with life and with others? Could it be that we are not dependent upon the grace of God?

    Our Savior was faced with misunderstandings, false accusations of His character, insults on His person, chicanery against Him, threats, trumped up charges, torture, abuse, and finally a horrendous death and yet in His loneliness He never became selfish. No one has ever been as lonely as the Lord Jesus. He was cut off from Heaven and earth and yet He still was not selfish. He continued to reach out to the thief upon the cross and to those who heard Him as He suffered. And He is reaching out to you and me today.

    You and I need someone to love, someone who understands, and the need to be needed and wanted. Jesus is the One who fulfills these three needs. You say, “I need someone who is real.” That’s part of our problem. He is real. He lives in you, He walks with you, He goes with you, He is our living hope!

    You may have seasons of loneliness, but that feeling does not have to master you. Because Jesus is with you, you never need to be really lonely. Recognize your problem and go to Jesus and confess your need of Him so you can love others in Jesus.

    Father in Heaven I pray for each of us. We allow too much to knock us around and to keep us down. Forgive us for knowing the stories of the Bible and even teaching them to others while we ourselves forget that You love us, need us, and understands each of us. Forgive us for not allowing You to capture us so that we may capture others in this same out-flowing of Your love through us. Oh what love you give. Can’t wait for Your name to be glorified so that we may see revival. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

  • He is the God Who is Near

    “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?” (Jeremiah 23:23).

     

    There’s a trend today that isn’t new. It has been going on for thousands of years. It is the way of people, prophets, and priests and their delivery of the Word of God. In Jeremiah’s day the prophets were lying to the people. They said they heard from God but it wasn’t true. And because of their false information to the people there was a great void that was filled by other gods.
    When God’s Word is not lived out by His people we can be assured that something else will flow in. When we forsake our God for the activities of the world then we can be sure we are sending a message to our children that God is not that important to us. When God’s Word makes an impact upon His people you will see people bowing down and humbling themselves before this great and awesome God. You will see people forsake their lives and attend the house of God. Prayer will increase. The fire of people’s hearts will be sustained by more prayer and preaching of God’s Word. Fellowship will increase and love will be deeper.
    God’s Word is like a fire and it is like a hammer. As a fire it will consume all selfishness and sin. And as a hammer it will break the heart’s hardness into little bits of pebble. When God is near lives are changed. In the days of Jeremiah there was not much true God. In America’s church there is not much changing taking place, except more self-seeking and self-serving.  We are in great need of revival. Great needs will be fulfilled when God’s people need Him. Souls will be saved when God’s people forsake the gods that are afar off and return to the God at hand.

  • Victory Over Vindication

    “And it came even to pass on the third day that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes torn, and earth upon his head; and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance” (2 Samuel 1:2).

    This man that came to Ziklag thought David would enjoy the news that Saul was dead. He knew of the trouble between Saul and David. But the surprise was that David did not have a quarrel with Saul. Because of David’s human nature the Amalekite thought he could invoke a position with David and he lied to the future king.

    It took three days, approximately eighty miles, for the Amalekite to arrive from the battle scene of the Philistines against the Israelites to the camp of David. So when he stepped in front of David he was confident. There was no question the Amalekite was at the battle scene for there he took Saul’s armband and crown or gold chalet from his helmet and presented them to David. But look what took place–as David stood in that burnt city of Ziklag David’s own heart was not burned or charred.

    Friend make sure that you do not have a quarrel with anyone. Cleanse your heart from all grudges and bitterness. If you will do just that then you can lead people with the integrity of your heart. David had a heart that was undivided with God. “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (Psalm 78:72).

  • An Angry Nation

    “Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow by it” (I Peter 2:1-2).

    With the breakup of the home we are becoming an angry nation.  With the advent of kids who are angry at life and what it has done to them there is an uptick in gun violence.  What used to be settled through normal communicable channels and court systems, we are now discounted and unsettled through the vengeance of young men or women with a gun.

    The race issue has surfaced like days before.  Except now the media covers quickly what it took papers days to print.  Many conservative speakers can no longer enter our universities because of radical leftists who have resorted to violence.  Add white supremacists into the mix and we could have a war on our hands.

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer lamented the fact that students and professors during the Hitler era resorted to silence so as not to lose their jobs, etc.  Today in our institutions Christian students, and especially professors, have to keep their convictions to themselves in order to graduate or continue teaching.  One cannot even say, “Jesus“, in a classroom without repercussions.

    I have no hope that the immigration crisis will be ever resolved.  As both sides demonize each other we will continue to have a toxic atmosphere of name-calling and political posturing.  The good news with all of this is that the churches have the privilege of welcoming whomever God sends to us.

    God has called us to honor Him by letting our light shine despite the consequences.  What is at stake are the eternal values that has been handed down to us.  The Lord Jesus has given His Church (notice that I said, “His Church“) all the resources she needs to be faithful in every culture, every generation, and every circumstance.  He will not forsake us now!  By His Grace let the Church be the Church!

  • Flummoxed and Flabbergasted

     
    “They will be called oaks of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3, ESV).

    The King of Babylon had a bad night. And because he had a bad night everyone else was going to have one as well. He was confused about the dream he had. He did not understand it.

    The King’s advisers were stunned. They were asked to give the details of the dream and the meaning of it. How could they do this? Only the gods could’ve revealed what the King dreamed.

    Daniel was neither flummoxed (confused) or flabbergasted (stunned). He had FAITH in the living God. Daniel asked for an appointment with the King. He would reveal to the King what God would reveal to him (Daniel 2:16).

    Daniel asked to meet before he knew the dream and the interpretation of it. Now that is faith. That is counterintuitive courage. I will tell you the truth, I am flummoxed and flabbergasted.  How could this young man have been so sure? Daniel wasn’t stalling for time, he was asking for a time to meet with the King!

    The fact of the faith is this: Daniel knew who his God was and what He could do. Daniel was soaked and steeped in the sovereignty of God. Faith like that was not built overnight; it began somewhere and at some place.

    Here is what I want us to take from this lesson. Maturity is a slow process and so is the development of faith. But sometimes God breaks the mold and works swiftly in a man. But for the most of us, faith comes slowly, just as slowly as to the oak tree. But growth does come. Daniel knew God and so can you. God planted His seed in you when you were born again. Allow it to grow. Trust and obey for there is no other way.

     

     

  • Estrangement Instead of Enlargement

    “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it more take away from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32).

    Sometimes we think a new location or doing something profitable will be the solution to our problems, so we change jobs, addresses, or quit. It has been well said that a change in geography does not overcome a flaw in character. A change can bring out the best in us, but it might bring out the worst in us. A faith that fizzles is a life that is in trouble.

    The nation of Israel had the opportunity to enter into the Promise Land with expectations of enlargement. Instead they enlisted entanglement among gods of the land. It revealed a heart issue. When we become so restless that we don’t go after God then we reveal our discontentment and we become entangled and faithless.

    We receive our spiritual inheritance by God’s grace, and we claim it by faith; but we enjoy it only if we are obedient to His will. The Lord died that we might be free and He lives that we may know peace in our hearts. When the Holy Spirit does not allow peace in our hearts and we are fidgety in our spirit then know that we are treading upon dangerous water.

    Criticism, cynicism, and casualness about God’s work fills the air today and the work of God suffers, causing much more than an isolated man to abdicate his love for God but also creating a rippling effect that influences others to step down instead of stepping up. What is the solution but to get more into God’s Word, stay upon the knees a little longer, and find God’s strength to get up and walk afresh and anew. God has promised joy and happiness when we stay put and go deep into Him.