Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Let us lay aside every encumbrance!

“Don’t let yesterday 
use up too much 
of today.”
Will Rogers
*
Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, 
since we have so great a cloud of witnesses 
surrounding us, 
let us also lay aside every encumbrance 
and the sin which so easily entangles us, 
and let us run with endurance 
the race that is set before us,
 *fixing our eyes on Jesus*, 
the author and perfecter of faith, 
who for the joy set before Him 
endured the cross, 
despising the shame, 
and has sat down at the right hand 
of the throne of God.

*For consider Him*
who has endured 
such hostility by sinners against Himself, 
so that you will not grow weary 
and lose heart.
*

Monday, August 24, 2015

Abiding in the LORD

?! How is this done?!  

?! How can we abide in Him when everything is chaos?!

*Think on Heavenly things (Colossians 3:1-4), 
then contemplate His word (How did Bible people trust Him? How do people we know trust in Him when they have terrible issues?), 
and when all seems “black” then continue to trust as a child would in Him in all things, even, and especially when it seems impossible to go on.  

This is work, -not for sissies-, but for those who truly desire to draw closer and closer to Him. 

ABIDE:
live in, 
accept, 
obedience, 
stay, 
reside, 
rest, 
dwell, 
adopt, 
believe, 
reside, 
remain, 
continue, 
inhabit, 
choose, 
draw near to,
take to oneself, 
keep on, 
persist, 
last, 
endure, 
go on, 
prevail, 
persevere, 
carry on,
waiting, remaining, hopefulness, ….

*Abiding is restful, peaceful, calming, there is anticipation in Him, hope in Him, complete trust in Him…

Abiding is not flippant, nor magic, there is no formula, you can not “turn it off and on”, …

Abiding is an effort of your mind and will, but it is spiritual work as you learn to trust Him more and more, no matter what is happening in your life.
---------------------------

John 15 -Abiding-
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 
6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. 
10 If you keep My commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 
14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 
17 This is my command: Love each other.
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 
20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 
24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 
25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Galatians 2:20  -Abiding-
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Colossians 2:6-7  -Abiding-
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him
7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 3:1-4  -Abiding-
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

My advice:

As a child, “keep on, keeping on”, and do it for Him—glorify Him!


Abiding: Waiting on the LORD

Psalm 27:14
*Wait for the Lord;
 Be strong and let your heart take courage; 
Yes, wait for the Lord.*
------------------------------

Waiting.  It seems like nothing, but it is something.  

Waiting is huge.  

Waiting is trusting the LORD.  

Waiting is great anticipation as we seek His face.

Waiting glorifies the LORD.

Waiting is not sitting still, but is very active in our inner being, using a lot of energy.

Waiting builds up our faith because we trust Him, and trusting Him more and more even as we seemingly “see” no answers

Waiting builds up our faith so we are stronger in our faith.

Waiting is not nothing, but it is something!
-----------------------------

Hebrews 10:35-39
35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence
which has a great reward. 
36 For you have need of endurance
so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
37 For yet in a very little while
He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
38 *But My righteous one shall live by faith;* 
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, 
but we are of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
-----------------------------

Habakkuk 2:1-4
 I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.
2 Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.
3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
4 “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him;
*But the righteous will live by his faith.*
-----------------------------

Romans 1:16-17

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, 
for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, 
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; 
as it is written, “But *the righteous man shall live by faith.”*
------------------------


So what does this mean to all of us who love the LORD?  

We need to continue to stretch our faith muscles in trusting and waiting, knowing that He is not slow in hearing us, nor answering us.  

*He will answer us in His time and in His way*——even if the answers are not what we expect.  

Even so, we need to be at His feet in obedience trusting Him.  We need to walk by faith even when we can not “see”. 

May we glorify Him as we wait!




Thursday, August 20, 2015

Have you been thrown away?

…disowned, marginalized, discounted, hated, lied to, lied about, judged unjustly, treated worse than an enemy… 

Humanly, we are so very hurt by any of this unjust behavior, and then, exponentially so, when the people who disown us are from our own families.

Do not lose heart, dear ones!

There is One who will never throw you away.  He never lies and never plays games with you.  This One will never discount you, disown you, or marginalize you.  He is the One you can count on no matter what is happening in your life, even if what is happening is unjust from other people, especially your own family.

You may feel alone, but you are not alone. The One and Only God is with you, even when you do not feel He is, even when feel you are a horrible sinner.

Read His Word, soak it in often, preach to yourself.  You are precious in His sight!

1 Corinthians 8:6
 "...yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."

John 1:12
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name"

Colossians 1:12
"giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light."

James 2:5
"Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?"

1 John 3:1-2
"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Just like my father


























*****************************************

Thankful for a wonderful earthly father.

Praising and glorifying the LORD for Him as my heavenly Father!