Believing--In
His Word 12-2-2013
Today
I am looking around me people are coming and going with their
breakfast beverages and I wonder as they wonder how many of them are
able to understand, to comprehend the Word of God?
Each
one of us is given a measure of faith, and a gift of grace from God
through the Holy Spirit. It is up to each individual to make the
choice to follow or to ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
As
for me, I will choose the Lord and His promptings; choose this day
whom you will serve.
For
this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He
would grand you according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;that you being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with
all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to
all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of
the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and
gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of long-suffering, bearing with one
another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in
you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the
measure of Christ's gift.
Ephesians
3:14-4:6
This
is the beginning of the 'giving-est time of year' or so I have heard.
It is a time of worry for some and stress for others. Some choose to
just ignore the whole thing and claim righteous reasons that they do
not believe in but they choose to follow out of desperation,
ignorance or lack of ideas of how to make the most of a season
without spending money. I say if you can't celebrate with the flashy
style of some do not worry; celebrate Jesus your own way!
There
have been years in my life that we did not have money for gifts and
so we made things, we did 'dollar store decorations and gifts' years
and all in all it did not matter how much we did not spend because
most importantly we celebrated Jesus. I know some folks say that this
is not even when He was born so why celebrate it? I found through
research that we are not far off in our date and that the reasons
were better than we think on taking over a holiday date of the year.
I admit the world tries to get in there and commercialize everything,
they make it about the gift, or about the Christmas spirit with a
little 's' as appose to the Holy Spirit with the big 'S'. Its all
relative really. Think about it for a moment.
Our
Salvation was given properly, and yet people dream up all kinds of
rules and regulations to get you or I 'cleaned up' before we accept
that Christ died for us. Then we also have to jump through a few
hoops to be sure we 'stay saved'. That is according to the world, but
we live according to the Word of God and when we get in the habit of
reading it and studying it through it becomes more and more clear.
He loves us first!
Our
God takes us as we are, loves us and shows Himself to us. He draws us
near by His holy Spirit and then cleans us up after the fact. He
knows its not a us work hard to be as good as Him kind of thing
because He has tried that route for centuries before Christ was born.
We are weak people, we cannot produce perfection only God can.
You
are
witnesses,
and God also,
how
devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you
who believe;
as
you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged
every
one of you, as a father does
his
own children,
that
you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and
glory.
For
this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you
received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it
not as
the word of men, but as
it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you
who believe.
1
Thessalonians 2:10-13
We
are called to bow our knees and pray daily, often, not just when we
need help are sick or broken. We need to take the time to pray, to
read the Word of God and to walk the life that God has put before us
as one worthy of that calling. Wow, do you see that? We are to walk
according to the calling God has put on our lives.
Therefore
we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of
this
calling,
and fulfill all the good pleasure of His
goodness
and the work of faith with power, 2
Thessalonians 1:11.
When
we walk according to the Word of God we will be worthy of the calling
and fulfill all the good pleasure His goodness and work of faith with
power! Yes, that means that we walk according to His will that we
find in His Word, our Bible.
Once
again I may sound like a broken record but there are so many evils in
the world today that would love to draw us away from the truth, or
rather the Truth; Jesus said; “I am the Way the Truth and the
Light”.
So
how do we know about Jesus? The Holy Spirit draws us, this draw gives
us the choice to say “I believe” or not. When we are little
children we see the baby in the manger and know He was special but as
adults it gets harder to believe. We are afraid of looking foolish,
or being mocked or teased for being a strong Christ believing person.
The enemy of Salvation wants us to see ourselves as wimpy people who
have to depend on other people not on a God that shall supply all our
needs! Fight it! Believe!
How
do we learn what to do about believing in Jesus? In His Word! Read the Bible, ask a friend, a pastor, etc. If you do not have a Bible of your own comment on my blog I will be sure you get one.
We
study to show ourselves approved, oh yes! To find ourselves accepted
by Christ as we accept that He is real, then we know that we are
counted worthy via the Holy Spirit moving in us and that we will
fulfill His good pleasure!
There
are voices all around us that clog our thinking but if we seriously
study the Word of God with the help o f the Holy Spirit we will learn
how to discern the voice of the Lord and be able to follow the path
He tells us to follow. So once we believe then we receive the Word
of God in Truth and know where to go.
If
we never read the Bible we will not get to know God.
So
be sure to do that, read the Word first, then you can know what to do
when the noise of the season gets overwhelming.
Do
not let this time of year get to you as an overwhelming thing, look
at it as a chance to open doors for Jesus! He is standing at the door
and knocking, trying to get you to let Him in to your life plans. We
can take His hand and walk around in the masses and share His love,
His joy and His forgiveness with others around us. Instead of
complaining that everyone is making Christmas about giving bought
gifts lets share Jesus as the reason for the season! Lets make Jesus
the reason for the 'season of Christmas' no matter what other people
think or say; they are celebrating our Savior! They need to know Whom
He is! Its up to us to share Him with others, not just stuff. Speak
up! Tell someone today that Jesus loves them and is not just about
giving 'stuff' but that He wants to give them eternal life!
Dear
Heavenly Father; thank you for the reason for this season. Thank you
for giving us a day to celebrate, and we know this because You have
appointed it a day to celebrate! If it were not so we would not be
gaining so much ground in giving of Your love, life and salvation.
Help us to share it with others today, in Jesus name, amen.
Suggested
Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Colossians 4:1-18, Ephesians 3:1-21
Ephesians 4:1-32.