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May
14
A Call for Prayer
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On this blog we often are sharing things that are on our hearts and asking you to join with me as we are going deeper with God. There is a hunger stirring in many of us that is coming from the Lord. That hunger cannot be ignored, we must together pay the price to go deeper with God and allow our desire to meet His. We started a couple of entries ago talking about ahunger for God that will not be satisfied by other things. Without being aware of it we can allow so many distractions to invade the call of the Holy Spirit. We must not put off or procrastinate; we must be fully engaged in the mission of our life which is to know the Lord and to make Him known. There is a truth that anyone who stands in the presence of God will be changed in one way or another. We are all long over the fact of coming for a temporary experience or a season of knowing God. The Word of God speaks of knowing Him and being changed from glory to glory. The majestic presence of the Lord is a life transforming encounter with the God of the universe. You and I must give up those things that hinder this divine relationship; we must go with a passion that drives us into the depths of the Lord Presence and purpose. We will look in the entries to come at some examples of hungry followers of Jesus who across the centuries made their priority knowing God and making Him known and the affect that determination had on their lives.
Today I am asking those who are regular participants in this blog to do something with me. Will you set aside some time to pray for those people who are suffering in Myanmar and China? Many of you have been hearing the reports of the aftermath of the Cyclone that hit a little over a week ago the reports are still coming in and because of the hesitancy of the government we are only now beginning to hear of the magnitude. But thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. You may not have known but there has been a strong church there in Myanmar even through this persecution. The assemblies of God has some 2,000 churches there who are made up of people who are willing to pay the price that it takes to live in a culture that persecutes the church and all those associated with it. There are at least 20 churches that we know of that have been totally destroyed and hundreds who have been killed. God is working out some wonderful miracles of His grace in making ways for relief to reach inside the country. Our church family is collecting and sending funds to help in this effort but in the mean time we are asking you to stop and pray. We often forget how blessed by God we are and how amazingly faithful He is to us. But our prayers for those who have been affected and our prayers for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering and yet responding are vital right now. This aid can be a source of the Gospel permeating that nation. China also is in need of our prayers after the earthquake that has killed thousands. Pray for families and pray for the believers there to be strong and be a source of hope in Jesus. You and I can go deeper and you and I can be hunger, but that hunger needs to have action with it. Would pause today and Pray?
May
12
A Hunger that Changes us
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When we are hungry for God we will begin to understand the words of Jesus where He says that His food was to do the fathers will and to finish His work. When we are hungry for God nothing else will satisfy, not things of this world or things that would be a substitute for the presence and power of God. A hunger for the presence of God will allow us the joy of redirecting ourlives in ways that would please Him and to redirect our drives and passions in order to know God. You can hear it in the voice of the Apostle Paul, I want to know Christ. This is part of the beautiful joy in knowing Jesus. Coming closer to Him with all of our hearts will change us. It will change what motivates our minds adn our hearts.
In years gone by, many people have made errors in this process by deciding that to really go after God that had to be alone. So for hundreds of years, pseudo religious people would lock themselves away sometimes literally in caves and rooms or in secluded places, thinking that to be closer to God that had to show there piety and their separation from the world. These well meaning but misguided people thought that if they were away from other people and away from any form of distraction it would be much easier to keep focused and hungry for the Lord. The premise might make sense in some ways but there are hidden limitations to merely distancing oneself. The difficulty they ran into with that kind of mindset was they allowed their outward practice to override their inward commitment. These people from the past thought that if they were away from other people they would be able to live a passionate life for God. However that kind of thinking is totally contrary to the truth that although we are called to be separate from the world in that we do not please ourselves, God wants our hunger for Him to translate into a life that will affect others. We who are drawing close to the Lord are to be lights that point to Jesus. In other words are desires our hunger for intimacy with Christ will cause others to hunger too. What are you and I willing to give up in order to know the Lord in a greater depth? When you and I take steps towards intimacy with God, we will hear His voice and feel His strength in new ways, our steps towards Him individually will open up new doors of experience and revelation with the living God. Let's go deeper!
May
10
Filling Our Hunger with Hunger
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Jesus has promised in His Word that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. There is a constant and wonderful promise that the Lord knows those who are reading for filling and it always comes down to those who are hungry not for religion but for Him. He has promised that HE will pour water on the thirsty and refresh the barren lands. "For I willpour water on him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon your offspring." Isaiah 44:3The Lord is calling us as His people to be so open to His presence and purpose for our lives that we want nothing else, nothing else that can satisfy. Come everyone who is thirsty for waters. Look at these verses that speak of this action. Jesus said it to the woman at the well; you would ask me for living water. The reason that the followers of Jesus waited in the upper room is because Jesus told them that they needed the empowerment, when they received that empowerment the word that was used to describe the fact that they had received is the word filled. Those who come to God with open arms and desiring hearts will be filled. I believe the it is very possible that we have become spiritually complacent with all that God has called us to do and to be and in fact we at times have held back a not received because of sins sake but because of lack of hunger for the things that really matter.
The Holy Spirit is willing to fill the thirsty, Jesus is ready to feed the hungry all that our Lord is looking for is hunger. I am more and more convinced that God chooses to minister to people not based on their ability but upon their desire. If we are complacent where we are, if we are satisfied to do things as usual, if we want to play church and do "enough" to get by, we will not be filled but will always be nibbling the edges of the real banquet that He wants us to experience. For the longest time God has been doing all that He can to get our attention to attract us to the waters of His presence. If we desire His presence it will mean that we will have to surrender anything and everything that would hinder the presence of God in our life. It will mean spending time on our own in prayer and seeking His face, it will mean being very transparent with the Master and calling out to God, it will require our life to be different if we want to experience the Lord with a different depth, we will have to go deep. In our day and age when there is so much that can get in the way of the hunger that God has placed in us, we have to choose, what will it be? This spiritual hunger is given by God and can only be quenched as we respond with all of our hearts and all of our lives to the presence of God and His beautiful love that is calling us to Him and calling us to come hungry and thirsty.
May
07
Lessons for Auntie Anne
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Lessons from Auntie Anne
One of the great takeaways from meeting Anne Beiler and reading her book, "A Twist of Faith", has been to see how she prioritizes the power of a giving heart. Remember in an earlier entry Anne had said that "Success comes from hard work and effort but blessing comes from obedience." Obedience ingiving is a great key to a life that God blesses. That blessing from the Lord is not always in the form of financial increase but the blessing is real and lasting. Auntie Anne's mission as a business was to give away as much money as possible, what a great goal. Anne and Jonas Beiler understood that God in His mercy had given them so much and they had no choice but to give back to God by putting Him first in their finances. Early on in their life together Jonas, Anne's husband, made a decision to trust God and to give obediently in their tithe to the Lord and beyond that in their gifts to Him. The principal became part of their life when things were tough and tight and yet they saw God prove Himself over and over. In fact at one point of their life they decided that they wanted to not only tithe but to begin to give by faith and trust God for His provision. This is one more step of obedience and for many of us it is a difficult one to take, but it is one we must learn and practice. We can trust God and put Him first so that He can and will bless us and use us to bless others. There is a principal of God's kingdom power that is tied to our willingness to give not because we have to but because we are allowed to be a part of His plan. In times when people are worried about the economy and about what might happened, it is important that like Anne and Jonas Beiler we make a decision to give to God in our tithe and our offerings above that as an act of our obedience to the Lord. May God teach us to trust Him and may He give us a heart that is obedient to give.
May
05
Lessons from Auntie Anne
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In her book "Twist of Faith" Anne Beiler the founder of Auntie Anne's Pretzel, share some of the deep and painful moments of her life and how the Lord allowed her to walk through with forgiveness for others and for herself. Jesus told us that if we don't forgive others that He won't forgive us. Forgiveness is a choice that all of us have to learn to make andan action that we as Christ followers are called to do as part of who we are in Jesus. Forgiveness is not an option but a command, the Apostle Paul says to forgive what ever grievances you may have against another. In Anne Beiler's life, forgiveness became essential to her life. After her Nineteen month old daughter was killed in an accident that involved Anne's sister, Anne said that she instantly chose to forgive, which became a way of life for her. She writes;
"God's grace and forgiveness are what got me through it all. Today when I think about forgiveness, I wonder, Have I forgiven others as I have been forgiven? Sometimes my old hurts begin to throb and I feel the emotions of anger and depressions. It's during these moments that I think about Jesus and what he said while dying on the cross surrounded by his accusers and executioners, "Father , forgive them." The Apostle Paul writes in the book of Colossians chapter 3 verse 13, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." When we forgive it releases the flow of God to bring healing into our life and to the lives of others through us. Unforgiveness is not a Christian response, there is no doubt that all of us have had moments when we wanted to hold on to past hurts but the Lord says as we forgive others He will bring peace to our lives. So learn this lesson from Auntie Anne Forgiveness is something that all of us have received and all of us must give. I will be praying that God encourages you each day of this new week. Keep praying God is in control.
May
04
Lessons from Auntie Anne.
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This past Friday Dee and I attended the Graduation ceremony for Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville Pennsylvania. The speaker for the commencement was the founder of Auntie Anne's pretzels which is the stores that most of you and I have seen at the malls nearly everywhere in this country. She began her stores in 1988 and now there are morethan a thousand in this country and in other nations. A few years ago she and her husband sold the business to a family member for a large sum of money. Her name is Anne Beiler and she is a remarkable woman who loves the Lord. Anne's life with Jesus has been one in which He has become the source and the center of Anne's existence. Her life has not been easy in fact she has faced tragedies of overwhelming proportion, but her life is also the story of God's ability to triumph even in spite of terrible events. I spoke to her for just a few moments before the commencement service and I asked about her life and her children, she told me she had three children, two that were still living and one who had died when the baby was only 19 months old. I didn't know until later what had happened. In her recent book called "A Twist of Faith"
Anne tells the story of her beautiful Angie, who was tragically killed in an accident while walking from Anne's house to the house of Anne's mother. To make matters even worse the accident did not occur because of a stranger but because of Anne's sister who never saw Angie before she accidently ran her over. Now I can not begin to imagine what kind of trauma that Anne and her family had to face, but somehow with God's grace and by depending on Him, she was able to make it day by day and to move on with her life as God gave her the strength. In the next couple of entries, I would like to share with you some of the thoughts that Anne Beiler speaks of through her words and through her life. As she addressed the graduates and those who gathered on a sunny Friday afternoon, she began with this statement. "Success," Anne Beiler said, "is a result of hard work and effort, but blessing is a direct of obedience. We have been talking in this blog about following Jesus and what that means, and at times what that will require from us. Here is a woman who not only has seen God's hand through suffering but also has understood the favor of God through obedience. When Anne says that blessing is based on obedience, she is saying that God's favor is not up for sale, but only comes as we obey His voice and follow His path. God wants to bless His children which includes you and I, but that blessing will not always come in financial reward but instead He gives things that times with His peace in the midst of the greatest storms of our lives. There is a song that was a staple of many of us from years gone by. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Blessing, the Lord's favor and provision, is a direct result of Obedience to God. May you and I hear and the words of Auntie Anne and walk in a life of obedience to the One who holds all of our tomorrows.
May
01
Following Jesus Means.....
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22 But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
23 For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what itsays and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. James 1:22-25 NLT Listening and Doing. Jesus, made it very clear to His disciples those who follow Him, listens to what He says and then puts it into practice. It is often been said that the difficult part of living for Jesus is not know what to do, it is doing it. If we are honest with ourselves and with God, there have many times in our life that the Lord has very clearly spoken something to us through His word and we have not listened. Or perhaps we have listened or not obeyed His voice. Jesus said that if we love Him we keep His commands. We can become so hard of hearing at times that the only one we listen to is ourselves. We somehow decide that anything we want to do and anyway we want to act is in line with God's will and we attempt to justify it. The first key for me is to get to a place with God on a regular basis that I am ready to listen. If we humble ourselves and say Lord we are ready to listen then God will speak but if we continue to refuse to listen, our loving Lord has not choice but to use circumstances to get our attention so that we might follow Jesus. I heard something the other day that I thought really spoke to this point so well. "God wants to speak to us in revelation what He is obligated to teach us in tribulation." When I heard that it reminded me that the Lord is constantly speaking to us but we are often too busy or too distracted to listen to His voice. Is it possible that even today God is trying to speak to each of us about our life and our direction not only for the big things but also for the small ones? James says in chapter one that if we listen to God's Word and don't do what it says we are fooling ourselves. That is exactly what we don't want to do, we have a desire to follow the Lord and His commands, to listen to His voice and promptings, but we must be willing to take those words and put them into action. So often Christians (me included) try to rationalize why we shouldn't listen and obey, as if we know what is best in a given situation. If we truly want to follow Jesus we must listen and obey even when it goes contrary to our flesh or our own ideas. Think about the moments in your own life when God told you through His Word or through you own private prayer time, that you should forgive someone for a past hurt, that would be very clear wouldn't it? (Colossians 3:13) But we can make every excuse for not listening and not obeying. Or if the Lord tells us to serve in some capacity or to serve someone else we will listen but not follow because our schedule is too full. What if we would take on a brand new pattern of our walk with Jesus, one in which we could say to the Lord, "I will hear your words and obey them." What do you think would happen? I think we would start to be people that are more life our Master. People who learn to listen and obey, who learn to love like Jesus because Jesus tells us how to love,(Matt 5:43-47) people who learn to serve like Jesus because He tells us how to serve, (Mark 10:45) people who pray like Jesus because he tells us how to pray. (Luke 18:1) There is freedom when we listen to His voice and obey His words. The sooner you and I begin to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen and obey the sooner we will know the favor of God over each part of our life. May you and I be people who listen and obey our Lord Jesus, in the big things and the small ones. May God bless you with His favor as you obey His voice today. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. James 1:22-25
Apr
29
Following Jesus Means...
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"And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19
...Trusting for His Supply Our World is changing very quickly isn't it? Our nation is as well as we have gone from a country filled with hope to a people overwhelmed with concern and fear. Every day news outlets tell us about that latest price increase on gasoline or food, and how we are only at the beginning of what is to come. The fear mongers are on a constant campaign to speak into every corner of our life promoting nothing but fear of tomorrow. Without knowing it we can begin to live our life in a constant state of dread or impending doom, which is exactly opposite of what God has commanded us to do, which is, "Fear Not!" Jesus tells us to live a life free from fear, to live a life trusting in Him, to live a life that reflects the assurance that we have in Jesus to supply all we need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul, from a prison cell in Rome writes to a group of people much like us. With a tendency to look around us instead of looking above, with the ability to lose the focus of following Jesus all the way and keeping our eyes and our hearts fixed on Him alone. They were actually facing far greater persecution than we have ever known in our lifetime in America. They were being threatened by all those around and lived in a part of the roman world where it was not easy to follow Jesus. Now their father in the faith, the Apostle Paul was writing them from a prison cell in Rome. How would you feel, how would you view things that were happening to you and to those you love because they were standing up for Jesus? Paul tells these loved ones to rejoice in the Lord, don't worry about anything, pray about everything, and allow God's peace to rule your lives. Even though Paul is in prison, he is not bound by fear, although he may be locked by physically restraints, he is free in Jesus. His attitude and his outlook was not based on what was happening around him, but based on his love and life in Jesus. This is so hard for us not to be swayed by what is happening around us in our culture, so difficult to keep our focused fixed on Jesus. We are all too often living like Peter as he is walking on the water to Jesus, looking at the waves instead of fixing our gaze on the Master of the Waves. Paul gives great words of encouragement to the believers in verse 19 That God will supply and provide and meet all their What Paul is passing on to these sons and daughters in the faith is the assurance that Jesus will provide for them on the inside by giving peace and on the outside by supplying their needs. The people in the church at Philippi were not that much different than we are, trusting God in a world that often times paints a picture of fear of tomorrow and fear of the unknown. Following Jesus means trusting the Lord to provide and supply all that we need according to His riches, His storehouse. "Lord please allow each of us to look to you in this day we are living and see that you are still there and still able to provide for everything we need. When you tell us not to be anxious about anything that is so difficult for us and yet you want us to live a life free from fear and free from worry. I thank you Lord that you will provide everything we need as we follow and trust you. Please Lord, Master of the waves of our lives give us new grace to keep our gaze and our focus only on you."
We may not know how God will provide for the needs we have in our daily life, but we know that He will. Following Jesus is a call to a life of trust of faith that He will supply what we need. Let's put Him first and trust Him Today.
Apr
27
Following Jesus Means....
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Remembering the Faithfulness of God. God's Word is so powerful and so pointed, it speaks to us about how we are to live out our lives and how we are to trust the Lord in every situation that we face. Psalm 57 is an excellent reminder of the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God even at the most difficult times. David the Shepherd boy anointed for the position ofKing of Israel is running from Saul. David has already seen the Hand of God numerous times; he has killed a bear and a lion while watching his flocks. God then uses David to bring about a great victory over the enemies of Israel but killing Goliath. Things had been going pretty well, no problems people liked David and he was on his way to fulfill the call and the plan of God. Just one small problem, even though David had been anointed future King, the current King Saul had other ideas. Saul wanted to kill David at all cost; he pursued this hero of Israel in order to kill him. David had seen God's hand again and again in his life, but just like us he needed to remember God's faithfulness. There may be times in our life that we wonder whether the Lord has forgotten us or whether or not we will accomplish anything that matters for God. Here David hiding in a cave running from Saul remembers a deep relationship with God that he can count on. David reaffirms his hope in God and his confidence of the Lord's protection. Look at verse 2 and see David's confidence and trust in the Lord revealed. 1 For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time he fled from Saul and went into the cave. To be sung to the tune "Do Not Destroy!" Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. NLT Why not take a moment now and thank the Lord for His love and provision, thank Him for His faithfulness and thank Him for His ability to keep us and use us. Just like David we need to remember that God is the one who speaks life and hope. He is worthy of praise for His faithfulness, we are to exalt His name and remember, that He will fulfill His purpose for us.
Apr
22
Following Jesus Means....
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Yesterday we spoke of trusting God even when we don't know the path that lies ahead. The reason that we can and must trust in the Lord is because He has told us to. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. What I need more than anything is to trust God with everydetail and every situation that may arise. I am so quick to try to do it on my own, so apt to take it on myself, when the Lord is calling me to simply trust. God has a way of reminding us just how faithful He is and how great his love is towards us. Many of you know that several years ago my wife Dee gave me a copy of Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest" it has become part of my daily devotions for the past eighteen years. Each day it seems fresh and alive. This morning's reading spoke about the trust we are to have in Jesus at all times even when we are facing difficult circumstances. I hope it speaks to you as well.
The Light That Never Fails We all, with unveiled face, beholding . . . the glory of the Lord . . . -2 Corinthians 3:18 A servant of God must stand so very much alone that he never realizes he is alone. In the early stages of the Christian life, disappointments will come- people who used to be lights will flicker out, and those who used to stand with us will turn away. We have to get so used to it that we will not even realize we are standing alone. Paul said, ". . . no one stood with me, but all forsook me . . . . But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me . . ." (2 Timothy 4:16-17 ). We must build our faith not on fading lights but on the Light that never fails. When "important" individuals go away we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, so that only one thing is left for us to do- to look into the face of God for ourselves. Allow nothing to keep you from looking with strong determination into the face of God regarding yourself and your doctrine. And every time you preach make sure you look God in the face about the message first, then the glory will remain through all of it. A Christian servant is one who perpetually looks into the face of God and then goes forth to talk to others. The ministry of Christ is characterized by an abiding glory of which the servant is totally unaware- ". . . Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him" ( Exodus 34:29 ). We are never called on to display our doubts openly or to express the hidden joys and delights of our life with God. The secret of the servant's life is that he stays in tune with God all the time.
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