Tag Archives: Life

New and Improved

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image.w174h200f3Paul talks a lot in scripture of being a new creation. How we are new in Christ. How the old is done away with, the old is gone, the old man is dead.

The new man is raised up with Christ!

And that’s awesome. But most days, it doesn’t feel that way for me. Most days it still feels like I battle the same old things. Face the same old struggles. Fight the same old fights.

I know that I’m new in Christ. That’s what the Bible tells me. But, a lot of days, I just don’t feel it.

Listen to Paul’s reminder today in Colossians 3:1-4:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Our lives are hidden in Christ. Our lives are with Him. How then, do we know that, live that, see that, experience that? We seek the things that are above. We set our minds on things that are above. We focus on what is good. What is pure. What is holy.

Where is your mind today?

Where does it drift today?

Where is your focus today?

Today, as we do our best to be the new creation that God has created us to be, we have to set our minds on things that are above. Where ever mind is, where ever our focus is, that’s where we will go.

Today, you are a new creation. You are His, and He is yours. Set your mind on Him. Focus on Him. Live in His power and His life.

And He will be the one making you a new creation.

Set your mind on things above. And be obedient to where it is that He is leading you. He will make you new.

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.

Fear of the Lord

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One of the commands and encouragements of scripture can be hard to understand sometimes. Lots of the things that we are supposed to do make sense. Love. Forgive. Care. Support. Pray.

These things make sense to us as first.

But, listen to what is put forth in Psalm 128:1-4:

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.

fear of the lordBlessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.

Fear the Lord. That’s a command that we hear over and over again the Bible. It’s one that we know, that we’ve been told about, that we know that we should do.

But, what it is? What does it mean to fear the Lord?

The way that I’ve understood it best is to have a holy reverence for God. To understand, to know, that He is God. He is different. He is other. He is not a man. He is not human.

He is God.

And we are not.

And we will never fully understand or know Him totally this side of Glory. There is a mystery to Him.

To fear the Lord is understand. He is the God of the Ages. The Ancient of Days. The Sovereign Lord of Heaven. The Creator of all that is, both Seen and Unseen. He is the Author of Life. The Rock of Age.

He is God.

And knowing that fact is where happiness and life starts. Because knowing that fact reminds us that we are in His hands, we are His, and He has this.

In many ways, to fear the Lord is a lot like trusting the Lord. Because when we understand who He is, in His glory and in His honor, we can trust Him.

So, today, you don’t have to be afraid of God. He loves you. But, we do need to fear Him. Respect Him. Honor Him.

Trust Him.

And in that, 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.

Hidden

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What is worth having? What is worth holding on to? What is worth building your life around? Is it the stuff that you can see? Or is it the stuff that is hidden?

What do I mean by the stuff that is hidden?

Listen to these parables that Jesus told this morning. Jesus would tell stories about great truth in ways that people would understand. Here is what he says in Matthew 13:44-46:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Pearl-of-Great-PriceHe compares the kingdom of God to a hidden treasure that man sells all that he owns to buy. He compares it to a pearl that an expert saw, sold everything to go and buy.

What do we learn from this? The stuff that we seek may not be what we are chasing after. The things that we desperate want, that will fulfill us, they may not be what we think that they are.

They may not be big. They may not be visible. They may seem to be small and unimportant. They may be missed. They may be ordinary and common in our life.

But they are worth great riches. They are faith. They are family. They are true friends. They are things that can be easy to miss. Their worth can be hidden. But they are worth more to us than we can ever imagine.

The things that matter may not seem like great worldly riches. But they are priceless.

And we see that they sold all that they had to gain them.

Today, are you building your life around what matters and what is priceless? Or are you building your life around things that aren’t as important. They sold all they had to gain this great treasure.

The treasure of faith. . . family. . . friends. . . are these things shaping our lives?

Or are we focusing on that which isn’t as important?

Today, may we live our lives around that beautiful hidden treasure.

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.

All of Us

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Ours is an inside out faith. For us, as Christians, it all starts on the inside. Now, what we “do” matters. Our lives matter. How we live, how we speak, what we do, where we go, all these things, they really do matter.

But, they have to start somewhere. For us, as Christians, and what Jesus wants for us today, is that is what is inside will show itself.

And here’s the thing. What is inside will show itself. It’s not that it may do it. It will do it. Our actions show what’s on the inside. Listen to what Jesus says today in Mark 7: 14-15 and 20-22:

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” . . . And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

392290825_640Jesus says that nothing outside can defile (or make unclean) a person. It’s what is inside.

But wait, then He lists a whole bunch of stuff that we shouldn’t do. And all over the Gospels, and the Bible, there are lists of things that we should do, and things that will leave us condemned.

So, what gives?

It starts on the inside. The faith that is inside, the faith that’s in our hearts, that faith that’s really down, within us, it will show itself with our actions. Our faith will be made known in what we do. How we will. Our actions. Our “works.”

Our actions and works don’t save us.

The simply show us (and the world) what’s already there.

It starts on the inside.

I put it this way, when Jesus has our hearts, He will have our actions. Ours is an inside out faith.

Today, may Jesus have all of us.

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

Daily

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Sorry these posts have been so irregular recently. Summer has been helter skelter for me.  I will post tomorrow and then I will attempt to post next week as well. I’ll be preaching Camp Meeting at Shiloh in Rankin County starting Sunday and will be preaching through the next Sunday. If I have internet access I will up date each day.  If not, I may not be back into the routine until the first Monday in August. We’ll see!

Romans 12:1-2 is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It’s one of those neat passages that has so much to see and look at when you first see it, but the deeper you look, the more that you can see.

Listen to what it says:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We could spend a lot of time talking about not conforming to the world and how our lives, our thoughts, our dreams, who we are, they should be different from the world all around us.

We are called to be holy. To be holy is not be perfect, it’s to be different. We start being different by having our mind in the right place – on Jesus.

abo2But, look above it. There’s that great verse about being a living sacrifice. And I love that image of us, as a living sacrifice, laying our entire lives down upon the altar of God. I love that image, I love that though, I love thinking about.

Our entire life, it is a sacrificial offering to God. Everything we do. Every moment of our lives, everything. It’s a sacrifice to God!

And that’s awesome. Except for this one thing. A living sacrifice can get up off the altar and walk away. So, today, we lay our burdens down upon the altar. We lay our worries down upon the altar. We lay our fears down upon the altar. We lay our sins down upon the altar.

And, because we are living, we walk away. We pick them back up, and we walk away. Because we can.

It’s not a one time laying these things down – fear, worry, sin, etc – it’s a daily laying them down. Every day. Because as a living sacrifice, we can crawl off the altar, and take our stuff with us.

So, today, lay it before Jesus. And tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after. And the day after. Lay it there. Give it to Him. Daily.

Every day. Lay it down.

And in doing that, we will that peace, hope, and life that we are seeking. May we do it, daily.

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

Didn’t See that Coming

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I really love when the Bible catches us off guard. When we read something or see something or something within the text gets us in a way that we do not expect.

When we see something unfold in the text the we didn’t see coming.

Like what we read today in Mark 3:1-5. Listen to this text and see if the same thing that hit me hits you:

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Man-with-withered-handWe see Jesus come into synagogue, a place of Jewish teaching. And we see people plotting against Jesus, because it was in the man-made law (not the Old Testament law) that people were restricted from work on the Sabbath. Why? Because one of the Commandment is to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. It should be a time of rest. But, the religious leaders had moved this to a commandment that had far exceeded its actual religious purpose and had moved it to just straight legalism and control.

So, Jesus is there, and he says, is it against the law to help someone?  And they are silent. And there it is.

“He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.” Jesus got angry! Didn’t see that one coming! He got angry.

We have this milk toast image of Jesus as just laid back, smiling, walking around, always happy, not very passionate, just kind of there. Today, it says when He was confronted by folks that would rather observe a man-made law than would help someone, He got angry.

Because they valued man-made laws and regulations over the true law of God. What is that true law? To love God and love neighbor. Jesus valued people over everything. That’s why He came. And that’s what He longs to teach us.

To value people over everything.

And they didn’t. The valued their rules over people. And it grieved Him. And it made Him angry.

Today, as the people of God, seeing others hurt should make us angry. Seeing children with no food to eat should make us angry. Seeing women and children abused should make angry. Seeing sin run rampant in the world should make us angry.

But, we can’t just get angry. We must do something about it. Jesus just didn’t get angry. He healed the man.

Today, these things that make you angry, these things of injustice and hurt. What are you going to do about them?

How are we going to act to help someone today? For in doing that, we are really living out the law that God wants us to live. And we are making a difference in for the kingdom.

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

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

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One of the constant battles, struggles, whatever word you want to use, that we face sometimes as Christians is this struggle between faith and works. We are saved by faith, right?

And if we are saved by faith, then our works don’t matter at all. For our works don’t save us, they don’t make God love us, they don’t do any of that.

So, we have no reason to worry about our works or really even focus on our works in any way at all, right? Our works, the stuff we do, they just don’t matter.

Well, that’s not quite right. Listen to how Paul talks about all this today in Galatians 2:15-20:

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

cart-before-the-horsePaul says, yes, we are justified or “saved” by faith, not by works. Our salvation occurs not because of anything that we have done, but totally because of what God has done for us in Christ. As he says in, because by works of the law no one will be justified (saved).

But then, after that Paul reminds us, that we if we have saved, then it is Christ who lives within us. And we die to ourselves, our desires, our flesh, our sin. Our stuff. Our works don’t save us. We are not saved by what we do or not do. We are saved by what Christ has done.

But, it is Christ that now lives within us. And if we lives within us, then it will change our lives. It will change our thoughts. It will change who we are.

We aren’t saved because we “do” stuff. But, because we are saved we “do” stuff. We put the cart before the horse. We want to get clean and then get saved. And we get frustrated because we are never clean enough.

Don’t worry about cleaning yourself. Come to Jesus. And He will clean you. He will wash it all away. He will take care of it.

Don’t put the cart before the horse. Focus on Jesus. And He will take care of your actions. For we are saved by grace through faith.

But that salvation will truly change us.

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

Let’s Cause Trouble!

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upside-downI don’t want to be ordinary. I don’t want to live an ordinary life. I don’t want to just mark time until I pass into eternity.

I want to live! I want to do something! I want to make a difference! I want to see thing happen. I want to see lives changed, good done, things impacted.

I want to cause trouble for the world and the devil.

As I say at Asbury sometimes, I want to charge hell with a water pistol. I want to punch the devil in the face!  I want to give him a HUGE headache and make his life and his existence miserable!

Listen to what people said about Christians in Acts 17: 6-8:

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

I love that verse. These men who have turned the world upside down. Come on, now. That’s good stuff.

I want to turn the world upside down. I want to see the poor taken care of. I want to see widows and orphans cared for. I want to see no child forgotten. I want to see families healed. I want to see lives changes. I want to see things make right.

Sin has turned things wrong side up in the world. I don’t want that to be the case. I want to, and I want the church to, turn the world upside down.

Or perhaps, better put, turn the world right side up. Make things right. Make it like God intended. Make it be like it should.

I want to turn the world upside down. I want to make I difference today. I want to give the devil a headache today.

Who’s with me?

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.

What We are Here For

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One of the questions that we are prone to ask a lot in life is this – why are we here? What is our purpose? What are we to do? Why does God have us where He has us?

What is our reason and our purpose in life?

Today, in Psalm 106: 6-8, David writes a little about what we are here for. Listen to what it says:

Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.

imagesThis Psalm is the story of Israel and God. It tells of their unfaithfulness and God’s faithfulness. And so, the question is raised, why is God so faithful to His people when they are so unfaithful?

Why does He save them when they wander away so far?

What does He restore and give grace when they fall so often?

Why does He save?

This is why. He saved them for His name’s sake. He saved them, that through them, His power and His might and His glory would be made known.

He saved them, in spite of their sin, because through them, He would be glorified, He would be lifted up, He would be worshiped.

Why are you here? What are we here for? Why are we saved? For God. For His purpose. For His glory. For His plan.

You purpose in life is not to have a job or get a house or a car or fame or status or anything like that. Your purpose is to know God. To worship and glorify Him. And to, through you, let His light shine out into the world.

That’s what you were created for. That’s what I was created for. That’s what all of us were created for. That’s what we are here for.

To glorify God. To live in His grace.

You have been saved, you have been forgiven, you have been loved so that you can give glory to God. So that you can worship Him. So that you can point others to Him.
Live in that, and find life. Live in Him and find life. Live in Him and find your purpose.

We were made for Him. May we live in His life today and always.

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’s Your Heart

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One of the things that I love about the Christian faith is this. Actions start with the heart. What is on the outside starts with what is on the inside.

Our hearts shape our actions.

If you want to “act” right, you need to “get” right. For what is done/thought/believed in the heart will show it’s self in our actions.

Listen what is said this morning in Deuteronomy 30:4-6:

If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

heart_circumcisionIn Deuteronomy God is giving the law for the second time. In this book, He is giving the law to the children of Israelites that left Egypt. The parents had disobeyed God, and because of that, they were not allowed into the promised land.

Now, the children are getting ready to cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land. But before, God gives them the Law. And tells them that there will come a time when God will not just mark them outwardly, but He will circumcise their hearts.

He will change their hearts. And when their hearts are changed, it will change their actions, it will change their lives. It will start from the inside. And what starts on the inside will change the outside.

We are an inside out religion. What happens on the inside changes the outside.

So, if your actions are not what you’d like them to be, or what God would like them to be, let me ask you a question. How’s your heart?

If He has your heart, He will have your actions. That’s the way that it works.

Today, for our lives, our families, our everything, how is your heart. Your heart will determine your actions. In that, that’s the way it flows.

Today, may God make our hearts in new. And in that, may we live the life of grace that He wants us to live!

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.