Advent Reading ~In His Word 12-4-2020

 

Advent Reading ~In His Word 12-4-2020

We have reached the fourth day of the last month of 2020! We are getting closer to Christmas and we are getting closer to a New Year; but are we any closer to God? Are we any closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ? In today’s reading I chose to read Psalm 42 because it reminds me of how many feel this year…

We long for God to fix things, we hunger for things to become as they once were but in the same time we know it will never be the same, we cannot go backwards. So then we begin to get down hearted, or sad, even depressed, but then God reminds us in His Word that we can rejoice and we can hope in Him, we can trust Him for He is faithful and just! Even if our friends and neighbors do not accept that Christ is Lord, and ask us where our God is in all of this, we can trust that He will bring us into His perfect peace as long as we keep our minds on Him! (Isaiah 26:3)

 

As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night, I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?”

My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers,      leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!  Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?

I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again, my Savior and my God! Psalm 42:1-6

Let’s make the choice today to put our trust, our hope, and our faith in God to be the one to follow; then let’s follow where He leads us.

While Mary was carrying baby Jesus, she had to overcome obstacles. At first Joseph did not believe her, he thought of divorcing her before they had even gotten married! After the angel spoke with him, he changed his mind and he too put his faith in following God’s plan. You can imagine the ribbing the neighbors gave them before they knew the truth as well.

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.

Matthew 1:18-24

 

It is easy to allow ourselves to be swayed by other people to believe the worse, but it takes a strong will to stand up for Jesus and do what is right. To believe what God says in His Word and follow it to the end, that takes a strong person.

Joseph and Mary grew strong as the awaited the birth of the Lord, the Christ Child. They trusted completely in God the Father to walk them through it. I want to be like that; I want to walk through 2020 with Him.

Perspective potential, in His Word 2-17-2020

In His Word- 2-17-2020

Think of the potential when you come into a temptation or a trial… what can God do with your life if you sin or if you choose to over come by way of prayer, asking for help, or pushing past the temptation. After all, if God is for us nothing can stand against us. So, we can overcome any temptation that is common to man or not!

But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:32

When we venture off on our own we are literally tempted by many things. After all no one would know if we did something wrong, no on who knows us, so who cares right? Wrong!  We need to be extra careful when off in the world because that is when things will come at us from all sides with newfound freedom. If we stay in the Word of God and prayer, we will be strong enough to stand up against the wiles of the devil!
So that means we put on our armor daily!

If we do that, we will be fine, but what about our friends who fall to sin? What do we do? Do we get mad at them and walk away? Leaving them alone? Should we yell at them and tell them how dumb they are for falling to sin?  No, we should dig into the Word and get powered up in the Spirit before speaking to them. We need to be strong and able to be a solid rock to them. We need to gently reach out to them and bring them back to the fold.

Even if we are the most studied Christian we can still fall; w must be cautious as we know that pulling someone up is harder than falling with them.

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.  Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Gal 6:1-3

Don’t be foolish, know that they need your help. They need you to carry them at times and to encourage them but that does not mean you are really any more important to God than they are; it means you are stronger so that you can pick them up and carry them as needed.

Teach them by your actions to humble yourself, that they will tear down the wall of deception and be able to hear you when you speak to them, as well as acting on the desire to come clean and away from the sin that ensnares them.

Do you not know that this is one reason we must stay in touch with one another? When we stay connected, we can form that bonded three cord rope. If we wander off alone or allow someone else to thinking that they do not need us, well, that can be as bad as knowing they are in sin and allowing it.

Then we are in danger of sin itself because if you know what the right thing to do is and do not do it we are guilty of sin.

 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. James 4:17

So, stay prayed up, get in the Word of God and be prepared then encourage your friend to get out of the sin by sharing the love of God.

Heavenly Father help us to stay strong by staying connected to You that we will be able to stand and to pull them back into the kingdom, in Jesus name, amen.

What is Worship? In His Word

Worship the Lord

What is worship anyway?

You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.  But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:22-24

This weekend I had the opportunity to enjoy true worship with other believers at a women’s breakfast. The songs that were chosen were a little older than my church usually uses, but I still knew them all. The leader really entered into the worship and even though a couple of times some of us were off track with the singer/leader it did not hinder the presence of the Lord in the room.

She named him Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.”  When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the LORD by name. Genesis 4:25-26

God is so awesome we should always want to stay in the Throne Room!

I the tabernacle there was a place called the Holy of Holies where the actual spirit of the Lord would be. We are blessed today because His spirit follows us via the Holy Spirit once we accept Christ as our Lord and believe in His promise of Salvation.

 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”  And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. Acts 16:30-32

Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.” Acts 11:16-18

What an advantage to be able to accept the Lord! Do not worship the LORD your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.  Rather, you must seek the LORD your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where his name will be honored. Deuteronomy 12: 4-5

2 Kings 17:38-40

But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

We need to really be worshiping Jesus in truth. This means we need to show Him that we adore Him as well as that we respect His authority; which is  to give Him reverence. To do this we need to do as He says in His Word. Get in His face and spend time not just doing lip service but truly entering in, in prayer, in song and in standing silently before the throne waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart and mind.

 Look for the directions in His Word, and then follow them.

When we do not worship Him in spirit and in truth we are like a person who asks for directions and then goes their own way. Or when you go out and get a GPS and forget to turn it on. We can end up out in the middle of no where with no one to help us find the way home.

God has given us direction in His Word and so we need to follow the Map He has provided.  Life will be much better over all, but more than that peace flows in our lives when we have been in His presence worshiping Him.

Take time this week and worship, really worship Him at home, or on a walk. All alone, just you. Then see how much clearer you can see the path He has laid out before you.  It’s much easier to find your way when you look at the map or listen to the GPS. God’s Precious Spirit!

He will provide us with the answers, the direction we are seeking for when we just take the time to worship Him.

Honor Him with your presence, your heart and mind included! We can honor the Lord with our mouth and forget to honor Him with our heart and mind. We need to give Him all of us, all our attention. The more we look to Him, the less we will notice that there are wrong turns out there to tempt us. The more we look to Him the more our walk will be straight.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us to focus on You each day of this week. Let the things of this earth grow dim in the light of Your presence. In Jesus Name, amen.

Suggested Reading: Hebrews 13:1- 25,1 John 4:1-24 and John 4:1-54,