Tag Archives: Believe

Look Around

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One of the troubling things about faith is just that.  It’s faith.  It’s something you can’t explain, you can’t really even make sense of, it’s something that you just have to believe.

But here’s the deal.  When you believe it, when you take that leap of faith, when you jump, this amazing thing happens.

When you jump, you see.  Faith is something that can’t necessarily be reasoned.  And believe me, I enjoy reasoning faith.  Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, The Reason for God by Tim Keller, and God: The Evidence by Patrick Glynn are books that have really helped me think through my faith and better explain my faith to folks that don’t believe.

But even with all this, here’s the thing.  We’ve still got to take that leap.  We’ve got to have that childlike abandonment and just jump.

When we do that though, you know what happens?  When you take that leap of faith, when you jump, when you leap into the arms of Jesus, you see!  Our eyes are fully formed by our faith.  Listen to what it says today in Psalm 19:1-4:

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.

starstreeWe are reminded.  Look around.  But don’t look with your eyes.  Look with your faith.  God is everywhere.  The heavens are telling the glory of God.  He’s everywhere.  We just have to look.

Today, look around.  We get so busy.  Our schedules take over our lives.  We go and move and act and everything; so much is going on.  We get so busy that we aren’t able to see sometimes.

Today, look around.  You won’t have to look far.  You can look to the heavens.  Look in the eyes of a child.  See someone helping someone less fortunate.  Hear the good news of someone coming to know Jesus Christ.  Sharing a cup of coffee with a  friend.

His glory is there.  It is.  It is everywhere.  We just have to look around through the eyes of faith.  And when we do that, we will see God everywhere.

Today, look around.

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We All Want Peace

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Sometimes in life, we just feel like we don’t have any peace. We can be set by trials, troubles, all kinds of things that can just steal our peace.

Things that can make worry, make us stressed, make us sick, make us miserable. We’ve all been there. We may be there now. We all understand this.

We all want peace, don’t we? No matter where we are, no matter our circumstance, no matter what is going on in our lives, we all want peace.

So, the question becomes, how do we get peace? How do we have real and true peace in our lives?

Listen to what it says in Isaiah 26: 3-4:

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

peace-with-god1Those whose mind is stayed on God will have perfect peace.

Here is the reason. Think about what take your peace most of the time. Is it something that is a fact? Or is it an emotion? Or a feeling? Or worry?

Most times for me, the things that take my peace aren’t “facts.” They are things that I feel that may or may not be true.

The reason why we have peace when we keep our minds on God is because when we keep our minds on God, we keep what is true and what is a fact in the forefront of minds.

What is true? God is good. God is in control. God has a plan. God works things out to our good (Romans 8:28). God will even use evil for God (Genesis 50:20).

Things things are true. Even when we don’t feel it. We have to believe it. We have to hold fast to it. We have to keep it on our hearts.

We have to keep it in our minds.

Today, set your mind on Christ. Set your mind on what is true. Hold fast to it, believe it. Cling to it.

And when we hold onto truth, we will find peace. Because we remember that God is good. All the time.

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, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!

Be a Barnabas

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Today, we read in the Bible about one of my favorite people. We read a little bit about Barnabas. Barnabas was a believer in Jerusalem and he had one of the greatest gifts anyone could have.

He had the one of the gifts that every family, every church needs to have.

He was an encourager. He believed in others. He didn’t just see folks mistakes, he saw what, through God, they could be.

Listen today to what he did in Acts 9:26-27:

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

Quote-of-the-Week-EncouragementWhat he did was huge. He believed in Paul. Paul had just received been saved. He had gone from persecuting the church and trying to destroy it, to now being a believer and trying to preach about the grace of God.

And people were very, very hesitant to believe him. Why? Because literally a few days before he was trying to kill and imprison Christians. He literally was their sworn enemy, sent by the leaders of Jerusalem to destroy them.

And now, he’s one of them? Yeah, right. No way.

No one believed him.

Except Barnabas. Barnabas believe in him. Barnabas encouraged him. Barnabas saw Paul not for what he was, but for what he could be.

Today, remember that God sees you for what you could be. Not for your mistakes, but for your potential. You can do amazing things for God today.

And second, believe in someone today. Don’t see them just for what they’ve done wrong or their failures or their mistakes.

Believe in them. Be an encouragement.

In this, you can change their life. It’s a small thing. But it has a huge impact.

Barnabas did it for Paul. And look what happened. Today, you can be that for someone else!

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.

First Words

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Jesus was more than just a preacher. He was a friend. He was a companion. He was a teacher. He was a leader. He was a lot of things to the many people that He encountered in His ministry.

So, the Bible tells us that Jesus was more than just a preacher. But, part of what He did was preach. He would come into a town, go to the synagogue, read from the scroll, and preach to the people that were there.

Today in Matthew, we see His first words. We see His first sermon. We see the thing that He wants to start off with. And I can tell you, as a preacher, the sermon you are most nervous about and that you want to “hit” the best is that first sermon. It’s when you establish what you are about, what you want to focus on, and what’s most important.

So, today, we see Jesus’ first sermon. It was short, and sweet. It was this – repent.

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 4:17:

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Wow, didn’t really see that one coming. We would think that Jesus might not preach so strong a word. Repenting sounds and feels bad. It sounds and feels harsh. It sounds and feels mean.

And we all know that Jesus isn’t mean. So, why did He start here? And what is He saying?

To repent is to turn from. To leave behind. To stop. Jesus first sermon was to tell folks – hey, those things you are doing that are hurting you, that are causing you pain, that you think are life giving? Stop them. They are going to hurt you in the end. They aren’t giving you life.

Jesus calls us to look at our lives and find the things and the areas that are hurting us and to stop them. Because they hurt us.

Repentance is more than just feeling bad about things. Its stopping them. And turning from them. Today, Jesus really does want us to repent of the things causing of us harm. Stop them. And turn away from them.

Why? Because the kingdom of God is at hand. When we turn from the things that harm us and turn to God, we find life. When we turn to the things of God, we find so much more life than we would ever think possible. We find life abundant, life forever, life amazing.

Life.

So, Jesus first words were these – turn away from the things that cause you harm and pain, and turn towards me. And in this you will find life.

Today, may we turn towards Jesus with all that we are. And may we find His life in every moment of our lives!

God is Proud of You

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The best sermon I’ve heard in my life was taken from Hebrews 11:13-16.  It preached at  Presbyterian church in Jackson, MS, I think roughly in 1997.  I was visiting this church with a friend that worshiped there.  And I’ll never forget the sermon that was preached that Sunday.

The preacher was dealing with Hebrews 11, a chapter we sometimes call the “Hall of Faith.” This is one of the cool chapters in the Bible. This chapter talks about all the saints of God in the Bible that had faith. The folks had faith in God, in His plan, in His calling, and in what He was doing.

Listen to what this passage says:

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

It says this – they longed for these things from God, but they died not having received from God the things hoped for.

God promised Abraham a great nation. Which happened. But, not in his lifetime.

This did not invalidate the promise.  It happened.  Abraham just didin’t see it.

And even though he didn’t see it, he still believed.  He knew that God’s promise was true, even if he didn’t see it.

And because of this, God was not ashamed to be called his God. Abraham had faith, even when he didn’t see. And because of that, God was not ashamed to be called his God.

Think about that for a second. We often think about how we shouldn’t be ashamed of God. How we should stand up! Be strong!  Have faith!

But hear this. When we live in faith. When we follow, obey, and stand in faith – God is not ashamed to be called our God.

God is not ashamed of us. God is not ashamed of you.  God is proud of you.

Hear that.

Today, through faith, God is proud of you.  Live today, in that knowledge.