God is telling us that practice makes perfect. The more you walk in the royal law, the easier it gets to walk in the royal law until you come to the place where you look like God, sound like God, respond like God, and have results like God.
You think God is broke? No. You think God is sick? No. You think God is depressed? No. You think God is out of hope? No. When you’re like God, you always win, one way or the other!
Is there a person or persons who have been coming against you in a way that you believe to be unfair? It’s time to practice the royal law, and you can begin in your own heart. Decide to forgive that person. If the Lord gives you an opportunity to find a way to bless this person, make a commitment in your heart before God to do it. That’s when you know it’s real. They may receive it, or they may not, but that has nothing to do with it. This is between you and God.
The love of God does God’s work. The love of God will compel you to witness to people who don’t know the Lord. It will compel you to give, to help others. It will compel you to serve. It will compel you to forgive. In the church I pastor, people who are medical doctors, scientists, and other professionals serve as ushers and parking lot attendants. Why? Because they love God, and they want to serve Him and His people any way they can!
Prayer: Father, I praise you for giving me hope. I worship you for giving me life. I glorify you for blessing your creation. Today, make me a vessel of your love to those who need to know you! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
By
Bishop Keith Butler
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I Love My GPS
I’m in love with my global positioning satellite system! It provides me with the exact location of my car, gives me instruction on how to get somewhere and tells me when I have strayed from a designated journey. If I continue on the wrong track, it will reprogram itself to get me where I want or need to go in spite of the errors of my ways.
As much as I love the GPS in my car, I love my divine GPS in my heart a whole lot better.
In Psalm 32, David gets onto the wrong track and finally sees the error of his ways. He is now a happy man because God has forgiven his disobedience and covered his sin. The heavy hand of God no longer rests upon this psalmist and he rejoices in the afterglow.
The psalmist is on a journey from confession to repentance, from prayer to praise and from pardon to the best pathway. In order to gain victory over the life of sin God’s guidance is offered. God will tell the way, teach the way and watch over the process. However, along the way there is time to stop, think, and ponder the moment.
There are three cues to contemplate: “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Selah (V. 4) I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah (V.5) You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah (V.7)
After that then the Lord says “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” (V.8)
In the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Psalms, the Hebrew word “Selah” appears at the end of a few verses. Selah is considered to be an unspoken Hebrew directive to the musicians or singers to stop, pause, and consider this, measure carefully the meaning of what has been said before moving forward. There may be a deeper meaning and you won’t get it unless you stop.
The tempo of life can move from andante, using music terminology or a moderate pace to the fast pace of allegro or to the loud strength of forte. In order to handle the daily tempos of life we must adjust our pace, which is often driven by the demands of the day.
Life can become a song out of control or a symphony, harmonizing the diverse sounds of life led by our divine guidance conductor, our God. The temptation is to segue or move into the next stanza of living without pausing to reflex, renew, restore or revive. There is always so much to do with little time to get it done. We tend to rush from one thing to the next skimming along the surface because we don’t have enough time to dig in.
In order to get the most out of the GPS, you first must confess that you’re headed in the wrong direction and surrender the guidance to the satellite system. In our faith journey, you first must confess like David that you’re headed in the wrong direction and surrender yourself to the Lord’s instruction.
Your Selah comes when you stop long enough to measure, weigh, and consider this before moving forward. There may be a deeper meaning to what is going on in your life and a deeper relationship available with God. You may miss it because you insist on going your own way or you’re moving too fast.
Step back from the melody. Listen to the psalms you’ve been singing. Recalibrate and reset your course. Love your divine GPS and allow God to guide you the rest of the way!
By
Bishop Vashti McKenzie
As much as I love the GPS in my car, I love my divine GPS in my heart a whole lot better.
In Psalm 32, David gets onto the wrong track and finally sees the error of his ways. He is now a happy man because God has forgiven his disobedience and covered his sin. The heavy hand of God no longer rests upon this psalmist and he rejoices in the afterglow.
The psalmist is on a journey from confession to repentance, from prayer to praise and from pardon to the best pathway. In order to gain victory over the life of sin God’s guidance is offered. God will tell the way, teach the way and watch over the process. However, along the way there is time to stop, think, and ponder the moment.
There are three cues to contemplate: “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Selah (V. 4) I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah (V.5) You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah (V.7)
After that then the Lord says “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” (V.8)
In the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Psalms, the Hebrew word “Selah” appears at the end of a few verses. Selah is considered to be an unspoken Hebrew directive to the musicians or singers to stop, pause, and consider this, measure carefully the meaning of what has been said before moving forward. There may be a deeper meaning and you won’t get it unless you stop.
The tempo of life can move from andante, using music terminology or a moderate pace to the fast pace of allegro or to the loud strength of forte. In order to handle the daily tempos of life we must adjust our pace, which is often driven by the demands of the day.
Life can become a song out of control or a symphony, harmonizing the diverse sounds of life led by our divine guidance conductor, our God. The temptation is to segue or move into the next stanza of living without pausing to reflex, renew, restore or revive. There is always so much to do with little time to get it done. We tend to rush from one thing to the next skimming along the surface because we don’t have enough time to dig in.
In order to get the most out of the GPS, you first must confess that you’re headed in the wrong direction and surrender the guidance to the satellite system. In our faith journey, you first must confess like David that you’re headed in the wrong direction and surrender yourself to the Lord’s instruction.
Your Selah comes when you stop long enough to measure, weigh, and consider this before moving forward. There may be a deeper meaning to what is going on in your life and a deeper relationship available with God. You may miss it because you insist on going your own way or you’re moving too fast.
Step back from the melody. Listen to the psalms you’ve been singing. Recalibrate and reset your course. Love your divine GPS and allow God to guide you the rest of the way!
By
Bishop Vashti McKenzie
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Hope From A Family Tree
The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 teaches us there is hope for the future and the future of our families. Most of us probably don't have any murderers or prostitutes in our family tree like Jesus did, but we may have some adulterers, liars, and cheats. Yet God can intervene.
What state is your family in right now? Men, are you being the spiritual leader in your family that God has called you to be? God has called you to be a leader to your wife, to love her as Christ loves the church (see Ephesians 5:25). He has called you to be a representative of himself to your children, a model for them to look to.
A wife is to love her husband (see Titus 2:4) and respect him (see Ephesians 5:33). When is the last time you told your husband that you loved him? He needs encouragement. He needs to be affirmed. He needs to know that you appreciate and notice all of the things he does for you. You need to tell your husband that you love him.
Parents, are you setting an example for your children to follow? It is so tragic when we see the bad behavior that parents practiced being practiced by their children—and even by their grandchildren. But God can intervene and change things.
No matter where we are in life, we need to be faithful to God. And if you have made a mess of things, the good news is that Jesus can clean up messes. He can untangle things. He can sort things out. If you will commit your life to Him, He will forgive you and transform you, no matter what you have done up to this point. But you must ask for His help.
By
Greg Laurie
What state is your family in right now? Men, are you being the spiritual leader in your family that God has called you to be? God has called you to be a leader to your wife, to love her as Christ loves the church (see Ephesians 5:25). He has called you to be a representative of himself to your children, a model for them to look to.
A wife is to love her husband (see Titus 2:4) and respect him (see Ephesians 5:33). When is the last time you told your husband that you loved him? He needs encouragement. He needs to be affirmed. He needs to know that you appreciate and notice all of the things he does for you. You need to tell your husband that you love him.
Parents, are you setting an example for your children to follow? It is so tragic when we see the bad behavior that parents practiced being practiced by their children—and even by their grandchildren. But God can intervene and change things.
No matter where we are in life, we need to be faithful to God. And if you have made a mess of things, the good news is that Jesus can clean up messes. He can untangle things. He can sort things out. If you will commit your life to Him, He will forgive you and transform you, no matter what you have done up to this point. But you must ask for His help.
By
Greg Laurie
Monday, June 6, 2011
Warning Lights
Our cars have warning lights on the dashboard that tell us when something is wrong that needs attention. They say things like "Check gauges," "Door ajar," "Tire pressure," "Battery level," etc. The lights are there to protect us, and to protect the car from being damaged.
When one of those lights comes on, we can do the wise thing and stop to find out what the problem is, and get it fixed. Or we could just carry around a little hammer and smash the light.
That sounds silly, but it's just what we sometimes do in our spiritual lives. We are doing something wrong, engaging in some sin, and we get a warning light from our conscience. We might ignore the sign--smash the light, so to speak--and go on. But a car will stall if we ignore the warning lights, and our spiritual lives will stall if we ignore the prompting of our conscience.
In 2 Samuel 11-12, we see the result of ignoring the warning lights. King David has taken the wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, and now she is pregnant with David's child. David tries to cover what he has done by getting Uriah to go and sleep with his wife. When that doesn't work, David engineers his death. So now David is guilty of adultery, deception, murder.
The warning lights, the "guilt lights," have come on, and David has chosen to smash them. He hasn't dealt with the guilt properly, and he is miserable. Psalm 32, written after David committed these sins, says, "When I refused to confess my sin I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long" (v. 3).
As 2 Samuel 12 opens, God has been patient for a long time, perhaps a year. God doesn't rearrange the stars to spell out "I KNOW" and He doesn't hang two-trillion-watt speakers from the moon and say, "David, you're in big trouble." Instead, He waits to see if David will come and "'fess up." But he doesn't. So God sends Nathan the prophet to tell David about a wealthy man who steals a neighbor's only lamb to feed to a guest. And when David angrily sentences the man to death, Nathan says, "You are the man." This third-person story works because, although David was miserable inside, he didn't truly understand how bad his sin was. Our sin often looks much worse on others than it does on us. And although God forgave David, there were still consequences--violence and sexual sin in his family, the overthrow of his throne, etc. Sin always has consequences.
But here's my point: We all have a will; we all make choices. If, as believers, we say, "I'm going my own way," it may seem smooth at first, like we've gotten away with it. But God has creative ways to get our attention if we don't listen to him. God knows we are restless apart from him, apart from obedience to him. And until we are ready to be honest about our sin, we'll never experience God's forgiveness.
Maybe you're guilty of some sin right now. Maybe it's gossip, or lust, or pride. But whatever the sin, you've seen the warning light of your conscience come on. If so, you need to pay heed to it and take care of it, not just smash it with a hammer. Admit your sin--right now. Then immediately turn from it, and receive God's forgiveness.
By
Skip Heitzig
When one of those lights comes on, we can do the wise thing and stop to find out what the problem is, and get it fixed. Or we could just carry around a little hammer and smash the light.
That sounds silly, but it's just what we sometimes do in our spiritual lives. We are doing something wrong, engaging in some sin, and we get a warning light from our conscience. We might ignore the sign--smash the light, so to speak--and go on. But a car will stall if we ignore the warning lights, and our spiritual lives will stall if we ignore the prompting of our conscience.
In 2 Samuel 11-12, we see the result of ignoring the warning lights. King David has taken the wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, and now she is pregnant with David's child. David tries to cover what he has done by getting Uriah to go and sleep with his wife. When that doesn't work, David engineers his death. So now David is guilty of adultery, deception, murder.
The warning lights, the "guilt lights," have come on, and David has chosen to smash them. He hasn't dealt with the guilt properly, and he is miserable. Psalm 32, written after David committed these sins, says, "When I refused to confess my sin I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long" (v. 3).
As 2 Samuel 12 opens, God has been patient for a long time, perhaps a year. God doesn't rearrange the stars to spell out "I KNOW" and He doesn't hang two-trillion-watt speakers from the moon and say, "David, you're in big trouble." Instead, He waits to see if David will come and "'fess up." But he doesn't. So God sends Nathan the prophet to tell David about a wealthy man who steals a neighbor's only lamb to feed to a guest. And when David angrily sentences the man to death, Nathan says, "You are the man." This third-person story works because, although David was miserable inside, he didn't truly understand how bad his sin was. Our sin often looks much worse on others than it does on us. And although God forgave David, there were still consequences--violence and sexual sin in his family, the overthrow of his throne, etc. Sin always has consequences.
But here's my point: We all have a will; we all make choices. If, as believers, we say, "I'm going my own way," it may seem smooth at first, like we've gotten away with it. But God has creative ways to get our attention if we don't listen to him. God knows we are restless apart from him, apart from obedience to him. And until we are ready to be honest about our sin, we'll never experience God's forgiveness.
Maybe you're guilty of some sin right now. Maybe it's gossip, or lust, or pride. But whatever the sin, you've seen the warning light of your conscience come on. If so, you need to pay heed to it and take care of it, not just smash it with a hammer. Admit your sin--right now. Then immediately turn from it, and receive God's forgiveness.
By
Skip Heitzig
You Are On God's Mind
When my wife and I were waiting for our daughter to be born, we wondered what she would look like. Now that she is here, I have looked at her countless times.
She is so precious to me, and I know every detail of her face. I know when she is happy, and I know if something is wrong.
That is how God views you and me. He loves us abundantly, more than our minds can understand, and He is thinking about us all the time. As Psalm 115:11-12 says, “The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us.” It is no coincidence that these two phrases are together. His thoughts toward us, His desires, are that we be blessed.
By
Pastor Andre Butler
She is so precious to me, and I know every detail of her face. I know when she is happy, and I know if something is wrong.
That is how God views you and me. He loves us abundantly, more than our minds can understand, and He is thinking about us all the time. As Psalm 115:11-12 says, “The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us.” It is no coincidence that these two phrases are together. His thoughts toward us, His desires, are that we be blessed.
By
Pastor Andre Butler
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