Supersize your faith

Jude 3 (ESV)

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Don't you love the New Year? Every year this time, people start  jogging and dieting to get rid of the belly that have gained over the past year.

It gets harder to lose that weight when you go to the local fast food restaurant and they ask you if you want it supersized.

Don't you love when you step up to the fast food counter, how they ask you, "Would you like to supersize it?" What are they saying? "Now that we know what you want to eat, how about a whole lot more of it !?!"

As I was thinking about this I suddenly came to this realization. When we enter into His presence, God is also saying to us, "How about a deeper, more fruitful time of prayer or worship?!?"

So here's my idea, let's say "no thanks" to the fast food guy....and, "Yea, Lord, SUPERSIZE ME!!!"

Dear Lord, we pray that we would ask You to supersize our prayer life and our devotions. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

A lesson from a Humpback whale

Luke 15:6 (ESV)

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

There was a story written in the San Francisco Chronicle about a female Humpback that had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. Weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat, with hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, tail, and torso, and a line tugging in her mouth, she was a miserable victim indeed.

Thankfully, a fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was in such bad condition the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her, a very dangerous proposition. One slap of her enormous tail could kill a rescuer. Undaunted, these brave souls worked for hours cutting her free. One guy who was cutting the rope out of her mouth says he saw her eye following him the entire time. Finally, they were able to free her.

The moment she was freed, the divers say she began to swim in joyous circles! She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, gently --she thanked them all. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

What lesson can we learn from this beautiful story. There are deeply wounded and entangled souls in our congregations and communities who are desperate and near to sinking, never to be seen again. Where are the brave souls ready to risk the danger and gather a team of rescuers to cut them loose and bring them to joyous freedom? Isn't this exactly what our Lord has done for us? We can afford to do the same, and I believe we have this mandate from Him. These are difficult cases, perhaps there is even some danger in approaching them; but a brave and resolute team, led and empowered by our Captain, can accomplish the rescue and share in the amazing joy of the deliverance.

You may be the one to initiate this kind of rescue team for a brother or sister in distress. If so, just do it. The result will be as beautiful and rewarding as a joy-filled Humpback Whale!

Dear Lord, help us each be the one to initiate the rescue of someone in need today. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

The hope that is within us

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, "What do you believe?" "Well, I believe the same as the church." "And what does the church believe?" "Well, they believe the same as me." Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, "And what is it that you both believe?" "Well, I suppose the same thing."

The majority of the things we believe were told us by someone we deem trustworthy. For example, we believe there is such a place as Zimbabwe because our geography teachers taught us so, but how many of us have actually been to see it? We couldn't testify from personal experience but we believe it because reliable people have told us it's true. The same goes for science, space, medicine, history, and the list goes on.

Sadly, one of the things most disputed in the world is the truth of the gospel. And even more sadly, many believers wouldn't know how to defend it if anyone challenged them.

As believers, we have a responsibility to know and share the truth of the gospel. Let's determine today to study His Word, spend time in prayer, and be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us!

Dear Lord, we pray that we would take the time to share the Gospel to those all around us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Let’s take risk

Psalm 31:24 (ESV)

 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,

    all you who wait for the Lord!

When Jim Burke became the head of a new products division at Johnson & Johnson, one of his first projects was the development of a children's chest rub. The product failed miserably, and Burke expected that he would be fired. When he was called in to see the chairman of the board, however, he met a surprising reception. "Are you the one who just cost us all that money?" asked Robert Wood Johnson. "Well I just want to congratulate you. If you are making mistakes, that means you are taking risks, and we won't grow unless you take risks!" Apparently, Mr. Johnson wasn’t joking! Years later, Johnson & Johnson remains one of the largest multi-national manufacturers of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, personal hygiene, baby and biotechnology products.

Likewise, we believers are called to take some risks so that God’s Kingdom may grow! So often, we cower at the opportunities He makes available because we are too afraid things won’t go the way hope and others might be disappointed or sneer at our failure. But God wants us to go forth boldly, sometimes taking a risk or two, so that we may accomplish great things for Him! Yes, sometimes we’ll get it wrong and there may be a hard lesson to learn. But we will learn-- and eventually great things will happen as result of our courage and persistence!

The time is short and there is so much work to do for the Kingdom! We cannot afford to stand in the sidelines any longer! Let’s ask the Lord to cause to us have courage and go in boldness! God’s Kingdom won’t grow unless we start taking some risks! Let’s take risks in 2017.

Dear Lord, Help us be willing to take risk to further Your kingdom as we enter the New Year. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Happy New Year 2017

Haggai 1:5-6 (ESV)

5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?

In addition to these 10 questions, here are 21 more to help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

11. What's the most important decision you need to make this year?

12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?

13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?

14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?

15. Who is the person you most want to encourage this year?

16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?

17. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?

18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?

19. What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?

20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?

21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?

23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?

24. What's the most important trip you want to take this year?

25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?

26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?

27. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?

28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?

30. What's the most important new item you want to buy this year?

31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is the fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question.

If you've found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace — in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc. — where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence.

Dear Lord, thank You for the New Year. Help us to focus on the things that will bring us closer to You as well as bringing others to You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

What do those stones mean to you?

Joshua 4:3 (ESV)

And command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’”

Do you think you have a good memory?  How much can you remember that happened in 2016?  Have you noticed that people do a lot of remembering this time of year? Everywhere you look on TV, in magazines and on the internet, people are remembering the best and worst things that happened in 2016. They talk about the biggest news stories, the biggest movies and other special things that happened.

But way more important than remembering all of that stuff is remembering what God has done. New Year’s Eve can be a fun time to look back at the last year and remember the cool things God has been up to in our lives.

In the book of Joshua, the Bible talks about how important it is to remember what God has done. For years and years and years, God had been promising to give His special people, the Israelites, their very own country, a place called the Promised Land. They used to be slaves in Egypt, but God rescued them, and in this story He does a miracle by stopping the water of a river so the people could cross over to their new home.

Wow, what a big day! The Israelites got a brand new home thanks to God’s amazing power, and they didn’t even have to get wet going there.  God did not want His people to forget the awesome things He had done.  He didn’t want them to forget how much He loved them, so here is what He told them to do.

Joshua 4:1-7  When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

Look at all of these things that happened this last year. Which months do you think God was with us?  One month?  Two?  No, God was with us every single day. 

Remembering the cool things God has done gives us courage to face the future.  The same God who was with us this past year, promises to be with us in the 2017 no matter what.

Dear Lord, thank You for all that you did for us this past year. Help us to remember how good You are as we go into the new year. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

What are some of the goals that will make for 2017?

Psalm 51:10 (ESV)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

    and renew a right spirit within me.

The New Year is a time of renewing, renewing your goals, your family, and your friends.  We often spend the first few days of the New Year creating a list of resolutions, goals we hope to accomplish during the year, things we want to change or improve, and possibly trips we want to take or new hobbies we want to start.

Whatever your goals or resolutions may be for 2017, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the past year and look forward to the new one. Some resolutions are the same every year, but it’s just a way to renew the commitment we have to ourselves and our family to strive to be better and grow closer. Here are a few resolutions that can make your year with your family more memorable. 

  

Have a daily family devotion time. This is the perfect way to start the day with your children.

Take a family vacation. The trip has to be a fun-filled trip of quality time together as a familyt.

Better yourselves. It can be something small or something large, but whatever it may be, try to continue to improve your family and your marriage.

Take time to set goals both as individual family members and as a family. What are some of the goals that will make for 2017?

Dear Lord, we thank You for the year that You have given to us. Help us set goals that will bring honor to You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.