Monthly Archives: October 2012

My Favorite Promise

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God makes a lot of promises to us in His Word. He says a lot of things to us that give us hope, give us peace, give us courage.

He will never leave nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6)

He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11)

We can do all things through Him (Philippians 4:13)

Nothing can separate us from God’s love Romans 8:37-39)

There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

We could go on an on.

But today, the passage we are reading, it has perhaps my favorite of God’s promises to us. Listen to what it says today in Jeremiah 31:33-34:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

We focus a lot (and rightfully so) about the part where we promised that God will give us a new covenant, where He will write His law on our heart.

God wants us to know that our faith moves from being an outward (action) based thing to an inward (heart) based thing.

God wants your heart. If He has your heart, He will have your actions.

And that’s all pretty awesome. Good stuff. But, I love what it says most of all, after that. Jeremiah tells us that will forgive our sins and, here’s the kicker to me, remember them no more.

That’s a promise. From God.

Not only will He forgive your sin, which is a big deal. But He will forget it.

It’s done.

Gone.

Forgiven.

Forgotten.

The sin that you can’t forgive yourself of, that you can’t let go of, that keeps you up at night, that robs your peace and joy?

Not only has God forgiven it. He has forgotten it.

His word promises that.

Today, let God. Forgive. Forget. Move into the new life that God has for you.

Today, you are a forgiven child of God. Live like it! Live in that new grace today, and each day.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Healing

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Do you want to be healed today? That was the question that Jesus asked a man today in John 5. Jesus saw a man sitting beside a pool where healing happened.

Listen to what happened:

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me. “Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

This man had been sitting there for many years. Jesus came to him and said, do you want to be healed. He said no one could help him.

Jesus cuts to the chance. He doesn’t accept that statement. He heals him. He restores him. He helps him to become whole again.

The same Jesus comes to us today and asks us the same question. Do you want to be healed? Now we may be facing a physical situation that has no easy answer.

We may be facing and emotional or spiritual situation that has no easy answer.

We may be dealing with things that aren’t easy to fix. That are challenges. That may take lots of work, tears, prayers, and faith.

Our life may be full of these types of challenges. But, listen to the question that Jesus asked this man.

Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be whole? Do you want to be restored?

You can be. By Jesus.

He can make you whole. Even if He doesn’t “heal” you. You may still have you physical challenges. You may still have your emotional challenges. You may still face trials, trouble, and worries.

But, you can be healed today. You can be made whole today. You can be restored and renewed today.

Through Jesus. In Jesus. By Jesus. Today.

Today, do you want to be healed? Today, may each of us find that new life in Jesus Christ!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Who Are We Aiming to Please?

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Today, in your life, who are you trying to make happy? Who are you trying to please?

Whose praise are you trying to ear?

The answer to that question will determine a lot of things in our lives.

If we live to please ourselves, we will become selfish, seeking only our pleasure, our gain, our stuff. We will place ourselves over others.

And in that, we will push others away, time and time again.

Living for ourselves will cause us to live alone.

Perhaps, through, we don’t live to please ourselves. We live to please others. And, while this sounds good, what happens is this.

We follow the crowd.

We given into peer pressure. We lose ourselves.

And, in that, we live more for the applause of man, than for what really matters.

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:1-4 today:

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

We are soilders of the cross. And our aim is not to please any human. Our aim is to please God.

Today, how are you living? Are you aiming to please yourself?

Are you aiming to please others?

Or are you aiming to please God?

Only one option will truly give us joy and peace.

Today, may we aim to please God.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

You Can Do This!

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God alone is our salvation. Nothing else. Not our actions, our faithfulness, or our lack of faithfulness.

God alone.

We see in Psalm 62: 1-2, David tell us that his souls waits upon God for salvation.

Look at how he says it:

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

David says – for God alone he waits. He will not be shaken.

This would, can, and will shake us. Pain, tragedy, loss, worry, hurt, they will try to shake us.

Worries will try to shake us. The forces of evil will try to shake us. Our own fears will try to shake us.

Much will come our way today, and each day. Much will try to move, worry, or shake us.

And to this David says – I will wait upon the Lord. He is my salvation.

And I will not be shaken.

Today, you can do this. Today, you can be faithful. Today, no matter what comes your way, you do not have to be moved or be shaken.

You can do this.

Through God. Though God, you can do. Through God, you will not be moved. Through God, you can be strong. Through God you can overcome.

Through God, you can do this!

You can. He is your rock. Your salvation. Your hope. Your strength.

You can do this.

Through God.

Today, through Him, we will not be shaken. May He be our rock and salvation.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Have Faith

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It takes faith to live. It takes faith to hope. It takes faith to believe.

Faith that things will get better. Faith that things can change. Faith that you, that I, that we can change.

Faith that the story of yesterday will not be the story of today, or tomorrow.

Faith in a new hope, a new life, a new dream.

Faith in God.

Particularly when we don’t see it. When it’s cloudy outside. When there doesn’t seem to be any reason to hope or dream or have faith.

But faith says that there is more than what we can see with our eyes. Faith says that there is a bigger truth and a bigger hope out there than we can ever imagine. Faith calls us to believe in something, or someone, bigger than us.

That is holding it all together.

Listen to what is says today in Hebrews 11:1-3:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

The people of old believed that God created the universe, even though they didn’t see it. They believed. Even though their eyes were not there to witness it.

Faith says that there is more than our eyes see, our ears hear, our mind understands.

Faith says that God is at work.

That He is our hope. Our dream. Our change. Our life.

Faith says that there is more around that us. That we are not our only hope. That it is not up to us alone. That there is more happening than we will ever understand.

Faith says this, the God that created the universe, He’s got this.

Have faith today. Know that there’s more going on that you can know. Trust in it.

Trust in God. Even when you can’t see. And don’t understand.

Have faith. Even when we don’t know why.

Because God is alive and at work.

Have faith.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Aim at Heaven

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We can’t take it with us. The stuff that we are tempted to chase after and spend all of our time chasing the stuff of this world, we will leave it here with us.

When we pass from this life into true life, the stuff of this world will stay here.

We, in our lives, should not live for, or place our hope and identity in the stuff of earth, but the stuff of heaven.

But, here, here is the key point. When our heart and our lives are on the stuff of heaven, we find life here. When Jesus Christ is our life and our purpose and our heart and mind is fixed on eternity, we find that life here on earth is even better.

In other words, if you want to truly live a life worth living here on the earth, don’t focus on upon the stuff of the earth.

Focus on God.

And you’ll find life here.

CS Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

Listen to how Paul puts it today in 1 Timothy 6:6-10:

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that money is evil. He said that the love of money is the root of all evil.

Money is neutral. Stuff is neutral. It’s not good, or bad. It’s how we use it. we can use it for good. We can use it for evil.

It’s how we use it. It’s where our heart is.

Where is your heart today? What are you aiming for?

If we aim at heaven, we find life. If we aim at earth, we miss everything else.

May we aim at heaven and focus on what matters! And may we find life!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

The Little Things

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What is the life of God like? Is it full of perfection? Is it huge and amazing? It is overwhelming? It is rockets and firework and explosions?

Sometimes we think that it is, or that it has to be. Sometimes we can think that being a Christian, or living the Christian life is full of emotional experiences.

That surly being a Christian must mean a life full of perfect peace. . . . that everything is perfect. . . . that there are never any problems. . . . and that life is just one repeated vision of heaven opening and all things being perfect.

What we find though, is that the Christian life is full of getting kids ready for school. And doctors visits. And paying bills. And grocery shopping. And, well, just normal things.

The Christian life is not defined by the big things. It’s defined by the little things. Listen to what Jesus said today in Luke 13:18-19:

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

The kingdom (or the Christian life) is like a mustard seed. It’s small. It can seem unimportant. It can seem like it’s not much.

But it grows to be a huge tree that the birds of the ear can nest in.

It’s something small. That God turns into something big.

Today, don’t miss doing something and good because you were waiting on something big and important. Be faithful in the little things. The good things. The simple things. The things that help others. The good things.

These little things, the small acts of grace, they make a huge difference. And they turn into a things that make a huge difference for God.

Today, be faithful in the small, good, honest things of life, and of God. And He will take care of the rest!

Let’s serve God with all that we are. Let’s be salt and light!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

How Envy and Jealousy Hurt Us

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There’s an old goofy saying that I’m sure you’ve heard before – he who dies with the most toys wins.

And of course you’ve probably heard the come back – he who dies with the most toys still dies.

Life is not about the accumulation of stuff. We can have all the stuff that we could ever want, but if we don’t have what truly matters, then what have we really gained at all.

Listen to how Jesus puts it today in Luke 12: 13-15:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Take care. Be on guard against covetousness. Be on guard against jealously. Against envy. Why? Why should we?

Here’s why. Here’s how envy and jealously hurt us.

First, they put us down. They make us feel like we are a failure unless we have whatever it is that “they” have. Unless we have their stuff, their status, their power, their position, their “whatever” we are worthless and a failure.

Second, they hurt our walk with others. Because I can’t be happy for God’s blessings in their lives, we are jealous about what they have and why we don’t have them. We aren’t loving our neighbor. We hold things against them. We don’t love them. We want what they have. That’s not healthy for relationships.

And last they take our eyes off God. Instead of focusing on God and His desires for our lives, we are focusing on ourselves, and what we don’t have. Or focusing on them, and what they do have. We aren’t focusing on God, and His plan for us.

Today, be on guard. Your life is not made up of your stuff. It’s made for God. Be on guard against jealously and envy. God knows it will destroy you. Guard yourselves and your heart. Give it God, and He will take care of it all!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Enough

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Today, we have enough. We do. In this day, we have enough.

Whatever it is that we are facing, that we are needing, that we have to have, we have enough.

Today, we do. Through Jesus Christ and His power and His spirit, we have enough.

No matter how daunting the path make look, no matter how challenging it may be, no matter what we are going through, today, we have enough.

Even if it looks like we don’t. We do. Listen to what happens today in 1 Kings 17:12-16:

And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Elijah comes to the widow. And he asks her to do something that is impossible. He asks her to give to feed him with the little oil and flour that she had left. She said, I don’t have enough.

Elijah knew that she did. She had enough. She had all that she needed. She had enough to feed him, and her son.

Because through God, all things are possible. Through God, there is more than enough.

Today you have enough grace.

Patience.

Strength.

Hope.

God can do it through you. Whatever it is. You can do it. Through Jesus Christ.

Relax. Breathe. Trust. Hope. Believe.

Have faith.

God can do it through you. Today, you have enough. No matter how high the mountain. You have enough. Trust in Him. He can do it.

He has give you grace. And that’s enough!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.