Are you serious? in the Word 6-24-13

Are you serious?...

The time is now! Are you ready? Are you walking in the Word daily? Are you studying to show yourselves approved rightly dividing the Word and truth? Are you in this for the long hall?

Are you serious about walking in the Word, in the Lord, and in His will?

If so then you better read this issue of In the Word!

Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand...Ephesians 6:10-13

Really, what stands out to me to day is the fact that God said the “whole armor” not where the trouble comes from, though that is important too, as is the fact that we want to be able to stand, but the fact is we can't do it if we are not ready to go full long head first into the battle that is waged against us in the heavenly places!

Let's face it, as one of our pastors said yesterday we are living in the last days. That does not mean we need to walk around with a sign stating “the end is near” or that we should run and hide under a rock but that we need to be putting on our whole armor daily!

Years back, too many to want to remember how many, my kids an I would put on the armor as an exercise in our home school. I learned this from my best friend because she did the same thing with her children when they were young. She learned it from another one of our friends; and so on...

The scripture says “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--” (Ephesians 6:14-18)

No matter what order you put it in its important to use all of the armor each day. Why? Because as it

said right there, we need to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one!

We gather the portions as we go in our Christian walk.

We started with the Helmet of salvation; all of us begin there with our walk we accept Christ as our Lord and put on the helmet. Think about the purpose of this helmet; I believe it is to guard our mind in salvation. The world would have us falter, fail and fall to sinful thoughts, but Christ over came the world!

Then we think about that belt that we put on, a belts purpose is to hold things in place. The truth is held in our heart, our soul, and our mind. The belt of truth protects us from the 'enemies' lies against or about us, or even to us. It helps us to see the truth in all things, even when we do not want to see it.

Of course when we had to have put on our shoes, because that represents the Gospel that we learned, and that we intern get to share with others. It is what we are doing now, getting in the Word of God and knowing the Gospel! The story of God prepares us to accept the truth belt and the salvation helmet.

After all those are on we need to grab our sword and shield; the Bible and the Holy Spirit can help us in any situation; it protects us, and helps us pursue the enemy to the end.

Why do we need all of these? Well, God's Word tells us we need it all, and that when we go to prayer we are to have them on as well, that we could persevere. Which is to continually go after something no matter what the trials or failures. Also to pray with supplication, which is to humbly pray earnestly before God for something eagerly but patiently waiting for the answer.

When the Word says we need to take up the sword and shield it says first “above all” which seems to make it sound more important don't you think? With the shield of faith we can walk through many trials and troubles, we can find hope for tomorrow and truly trust God in all things. Remember faith is trusting in God. He can do all things, and we can do all things through Him. Can we get buy with just that? No. God says the whole armor remember?

If we got up an went out of the house without our shoes in the physical we would find our feet would become dirty, calloused and probably damaged. Likewise, if we have not prepared our hearts in the form of our feet being 'shod' or 'prepared' with the gospel of peace then we are leaving our hearts, our walk, our lives open for such things. A heart that is hardened is difficult to soften.

Well, what about the shield? Oh no way! Without faith we are not even able to believe in Christ Himself! It is our protective device. So we can't leave that behind. I really do not want to go around with my pants hanging down like the youth do today either, so I am keeping my belt on secure!

Then Jesus said... “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:3-5

Breastplate? Our righteousness is in Christ we have to keep it on!

I think we have made it pretty clear that we can do without not one portion of our Armor and remain in a stable walk in Christ.

The good news is that we can do it! We can put on the armor daily; by this I mean that we can remind ourselves that it is on from the time we accepted Christ as our Savior we have been given the whole armor; its up to us to keep it on.

While I do not believe you can 'loose' your salvation I do believe you can wander from God's plan for your life. I believe you have to give Him your will, and take on His. When we remind ourselves daily to put on the Armor of God we are reminding ourselves that we chose to give Him our will, that our God would guide us in the right path.

You have no doubt  heard it said that 7 days without prayer makes one weak, but I believe 7 days without the Word will make you weaker. For when we read the Bible daily it brings the thoughts quickly to our mind that will shield us from the world's temptations. When we just read it now and then when we fell like it then it will not be every present in our thoughts and we no doubt will fall to some temptation or another that is common to man. When we have the shield polished and ready we can not be shaken, nor will we loose ground in our walk. Be ready, be prepared, be serious in His Word today, and everyday!

Dear heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the Armor you created for us. Help us to wear it proper and keep it well cared for so that we are ready, prepared and serious in our walk with You. In Jesus name, amen.

Suggested reading: Ephesians 6:1-24, 1 Timothy 2:1-26, John 8: 1-59, and 2 Peter 1:1-21.

Listening in His Word 6-17-13

Is it really worth all the trouble to do the right thing? Do we really get what the pastors are saying? Is it necessary to do all that just to get into heaven? No, but once we accept Christ as our Lord we need to be obedient to the Word and truth.

Each week we head off to church to listen to a pastor preach the Word of God; or do we?
Does your week begin with you looking at how the pastor is dressed or if he presented his sermon in a timely manor or do you head off to church with God in mind and wondering what He will bring to you personally through the sermon today?

Think about it; if God can use a donkey to get a point across can't he use a pastor too?

Our pastors are “God's microphone” to us but if we do not have the sound turned on we will not hear a thing!

Are we like teenagers when we hear God? Do we filter out what we don't want to do, or don't want to hear?

When a teen says; “Oh I didn't hear you tell me to clean my room”
What he really means is; “Oh, I do not want to clean up my room so I am going to choose to ignore that fact and play dumb. Mom/Dad won't be mad cause I am claiming that I am innocent of being disobedient. And besides brother didn't clean his room so why should I?”

When we say; “Oh God, I didn't hear you tell me to clean up my act”.

What we really mean is; “Oh, Lord I know you want me to get rid of that habit but I am enjoying it too much right now to let it go, so I guess I will wallow in it a bit more before I am ready to change. My friends are Christians and they still do this bad habit, its not harming anyone, so why worry...”

Not too much difference is there?

What the parent hears is; “Forget you Mom/Dad I am doing what I want to do!”

What God hears is; “Forget you God, I know better what is right for me!”

The Word of God says that we reap what we sow. If this is our attitude then what will we reap?

Pay careful attention to your own work, then you will get eh satisfaction of a job well done, and you wont need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers sharing all good things with them. Don't be misled you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy tier own sinful nature will Harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life fro the Spirit. So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give y. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone-- especially those in the family of faith. Galatians 6:4-10

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us...looking to Jesus the author and finisher for our faith who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons: my Son do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? Hebrews 12:1-11

When we are given an area of our life that needs to change, whether it is laziness, or lust, or complaining, or speaking truth instead of failure; we need to be obedient to God and walk in it. If we do not accept making the change needed we will not grow.

It is plane and simple; obedience is faith as a seed. We plant the seed by doing what God tells us to do; get rid of that sin, walk a straight walk, be kind to that stranger. Whatever it is if God gives us the guidance we need to examine our hearts and walk in it accordingly.

When you sit in church, or listen to a speaker on the radio who speaks to you about tithing, do you squirm and think they don't deserve your money? Or do you ask God to show you if you are to give?

When you are told to clean your room, do you put it off for lame reasons such as not enough time, not caring or too much stuff? Or do you ask for help to get the task done?

If you can't fit your clothes in the drawers you either have too many shirts or you need to relearn how to fold them.

Sometimes we think we have it all down, our own system as it were, to deal with our problems. Then God sends someone in to shake us up a bit and tell us we are wrong.

How we deal with the message God gives us makes all the difference in how we grow.

If we take it in and consider it before dumping it out, we may grow a little from what we have learned.

If we take it in and mull it over and find out where to put it to use in our life, we will grow a lot more!

God doesn't always do things the way we think He should; sometimes He tells us to rearrange our drawers and sometimes He tells us to get a new dresser to put them in. Still other times we find the need to get rid of some of our clothing and give it away in order for things to fit correctly in our drawers of life.

If your life is too cluttered with stuff, maybe its time to clean out your life? Maybe its time to get rid of the extra 'shirts' or activities that keep you from doing the will of God?

We can look back on the seed scripture and realize that before we plant we must first get rid of the bad stuff in the soil and make sure it is ready and prepped for growth. When we plant obedience to the Word and truth then we will reap in the same. It may not be when we think it should be, like tomatoes with a mind of their own; we may find the harvest is not so plentiful early on in the season, but if we water them correctly, weed out anything that fights against its growth we will have a ton of tomatoes.

When my husband plants a tomato plant he expects a tomato to come from it; not a pepper. When God plants a seed of encouragement, growth, or obedience, He expects those very things to come from them.

He wants us to hear and do what He says today. Lets not put on selective hearing and only follow the part of the Word, or the sermon we like, lets do the will of God in our lives.

Dear Heavenly Father; help us to do Your will in all that we do; guide us to reap what we sow and let that sowing be done with mercy and obedience to you. In Jesus name, amen.

Suggested Reading: Galatians 6:1-18 , Hebrews 12 :1-29, Ephesians 4:1-32, and Psalm 84:1-12

Prepared In His Word- 6-10-13

Prepared In His Word

Are you ready? Are you prepped and geared up for what's ahead? Are you prepared for what God has for you to do? Do not worry today for He will prepare the way for you!

Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer to when they say, “ Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.' “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none Is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is! Matthew 11:9-11

Sometimes we are looking in the wrong place for the answer we seek. The people of Israel, including the Priests and Levites

  were not looking among the average person for the Messiah, yet that is where He came. He came out of a family of carpenters, hand laborers and yet He was, and is the King of kings! They were not prepared for what He had for them, many learned to accept His Word and many chose to ignore it an died in their sins.

Some people will get saved, they will get all excited and run off to tell the world who Jesus is without being prepared to defend what they believe. They are like a soldier going out to battle without his ammunition. Without the bullets the weapon is useless.

Without the preparation in the Word of God witnessing is wimpy at best. If we cannot use the Bible to show, or tell others the reality of who God is then we are not prepared.

My Bible tells me to put on the armor of God, with good reason.

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:10-17

When we go out to share the Gospel Message, or just to tell someone what God is doing in our lives we need to be prepared with the knowledge or Whom it is we are talking about!

This is a good reason to read the Word daily if nothing else; to be prepared.

God is good! He knew we would come into a world that was full of confusing and misunderstandings and so He gave us a manual of design. He gave us the Word of God to follow as an example for our lives but also to know who He is. It is a History book, and a future book, it is a diary of God's early doings as written through people whom He shared His heart's desires.

He prepares His people for battle, but it is up to us to prepare our lives for His direction. We must be obedient to His Word, to read it daily we can know just what to do. We must keep the oil in our lamps burning! Fresh oil from the throne comes to us through prayer and the Word of God!

I desire to dig in the Word each day and find what God has for me, I want to be ready when the Bridegroom comes!

“At midnight they were roused by the shout, 'Look the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!' all the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others. 'Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.' Matthew 29:6-8

God has prepared a place for us. He knows how much room we need and He has more than enough room. He has prepared the Bible to fill our hearts and minds with His love, His guidance and His understanding. He has prepared to spend time with us daily; have we shown up ready?

God waits to hear our voice in the morning, through out the day He walks with us and talks to us, He would love to have us respond in kind. He tells us not to have fear of His directions, that we can trust Him.

“Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. John 24”1-3“

Even when He had to leave his closest earthly 'life group' Jesus told them to trust God, the Father, and to trust Him as they are one and the same. He told them He would go and prepare for them to join Him in heaven. He does the same for us, each of us who believe, who trust in Him to do as He has promised.

Some ways we can prepare ourselves for the day we join Him are;

• Put on your Helmet--Open up your heart to Him. He wants to be your forever friend. When you allow Jesus to become part of your life and you accept that Christ is real, and that He wants to be your Lord you begin to get prepared.
• Buckle your Belt--When you accept that the Word of God is God breathed, inspired, and encouraged to be written in such a manner as to cause spiritual growth and understanding of God and His ways, then your preparation is taking on life.
• Strap on your Sword--When you pray, and read your Bible daily you gain the strength that only the Holy Spirit can give. It is a supernatural strength to stand, to step forward in ministry even when your physical world is spinning around you. Even when loved ones go on to be with Him you can step out, and step up to the task that He has given you when your prayer life, and your reading is up to date!
• Step into the Shoes- If you are prepared with the Word that you study to show yourselves approved and ready to go into battle knowing the Gospel! Now you are ready to step out in faith and share what He has given you!

When we prepare our hearts and minds in the Word daily, more often as we hear Him calling, and add to that reading praying and communicating with Him; then we will be ready!

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us all we need and what to do with it. Thank you for your handbook, your instruction manual, your map of life! Thank you for Your Words! Grant us understanding today beyond what we know that we may step out in faith knowing that we have hidden your words in our heart. In Jesus name, amen.

Suggested readings: Ephesians 6:1-24, Colossians 1;1-29 Philippians 2:-1-24, and Philippians 4:1-24

Accept the Task- In His Word 6-3-13

How many times have you come to God asking for His direction with the back thought of “what's in it for me?” when He gives you that direction?

Or when you are given a task to accomplish; do you wonder why you should be the one to do it when you are not capable, trained enough, or knowledgeable enough to lead a class, gather a group or put for the words He gave you to share?

Do you know what the tasks He brings gives us?

A task that takes:

Time-- will bring exhaustion! Yes it will but with that exhaustion God will bring you strength to endure to the end.

Money--it may make you feel penniless! Perhaps for a moment but as we know money is flighty. The love of it is at the root of all evil so we need to be able to allow God to use what He gives us for His glory, including our finances. If He should choose to multiply it back to us, so be it, but if not we need to be okay with that because He will bring us through what He puts us into. What He puts us into, not what we think we should spend money on so we can say we did it. Remember that part.

Strength-- A task that God gives us will no doubt often take our strength for the moment; but He will restore that and be our strength! For when we are weak He is strong! Using up our strength for His glory will give Him a chance to work through us and show us just how close He really is to us!

Faith-- to complete the task He has given us it sometimes takes a lot of faith because we do always see the end of the task while in the middle of it. Often things happen which will cause us to wonder why we took it on in the first place but God tells us to have faith! And He will give us hope to finish the task!

Obedience-- the big O' is the hardest thing to give up to God it seems. We in our carnality, our flesh wants to do what will preserve our livelihood, not do something that will make us go out of our way, or beyond what we think we can do. When we choose to be obedient to God's task for us we will find God's purpose for our lives; we will receive God's praise, and most of all we will give all the Glory to God and we will like it that way!

When we are obedient to the task God gives us we will have peace knowing it was God, not man asking us to do it in the first place.

Something to remember when we step out into the task He has given us is that it is not about what is in it for us, it's for whats in it for Him.

So if we are doing this great thing for God, and it is a great thing if it is for God even if its just bringing someone a cake, or sharing a life story with a friend that encourages them to have hope for tomorrow knowing God will bring her through what they are walking in at this time.

We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

A few important things to remember when God gives you a task are;

Anything worth doing is worth doing right, no slacking and being lazy, do it right the first time.

Why? If we do not do it right the first time, we will have to try again. Now think for a moment. If God told you to do something and you were lazy about it or lackadaisical and put it off until the last minute, then ran through it like water over clay; it could be likened to a child being told to clean his room and he puts it off until the deadline and runs through stuffing things in closets and drawers and under the bed, but its not really clean. The job is not done until it is done right.

Do it for the glory of God, not the glory of men. Why? If we are praised by men here on earth, there is our glory and praise, but would you not rather have the praise and glory of God over men? It would be so much more praise, so much more blessing coming from God.

Do it for God's approval, not just mans. Again, man is fallible, God infallible. Personally if man thinks I am stupid for following Christ I will not stop following Him; so why would I care what man thinks of me? Only for the glory of God, if we do things for God He will get the glory when He gives us the approval to accomplish the task.

And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. Romans 2:9b.

God's provision or mans? Which one are you looking for? God will provide all my needs according to His riches in glory. Man may give a little provision as they see fit. Hmm... I think that speaks for itself!

Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? 2 Corinthians 10:7

Man's approval is temporal, God's approval is eternal.

Man's approval is self seeking, God's approval is uplifting.

Man's praise is shallow; God's praise is deep.

This is why we follow after God, not man.

When people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them. 2 Corinthians 10:18

Dear Heavenly father, help us to stay focused on the task at hand; fulfilling your purpose in our lives. Help us to see that the problems in this world are limited but your answers are unlimited. Bless us today with direction, guidance and the faith to follow the walk you place before us, in Jesus name, amen.

Suggested reading: 2 Corinthians 10:1-18 , Romans 2:1-28, Psalm 22:1-29, Psalm 8:1-9,