Open Ears to Hear from Him

God speaks.

Are we listening?

What happens is that we usually say that we cannot hear God.

Can you sense His presence?

Do you read His Word daily?

God’s Word Gives Us Light to Follow

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. – Psalm 119:105

His Word can guide us.

How?

• Lamp unto our feet
• Light unto our path

How do you expect to find your way if you won’t accept His guiding light?

Jesus put it in simple terms: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43)

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A New Day Full of Mercies

Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness,

Morning by morning new mercies I see:

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

– Great is Thy Faithfulness (Hymn)

²² It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

– Lamentations 3:22-23 (KJV)

What if God stopped giving us those new mercies “morning by morning?” Could we handle that?

I am not too sure that we could.

What if God said He was going to start a mercy recycling program where He could recycle, reduce and reuse some of these mercies that he has been using on us? Would we still be overjoyed and full of praise?

I don’t know about the same level of praise, but any mercy from one such as the Great I Am is good.  Yet, God does a masterful job putting us in a position to accept His greatness and His great faithfulness.  He gives us all that we have need of day by day, morning by morning, especially those things of spiritual value.

Don’t neglect or overlook God’s faithfulness with the dawning of each day that is full of new mercies laid out just for us.

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God Expects Us to Do

Do not merely listen to the word,
and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
– James 1:22 (NIV)

It is probably safe to say that most of want to do what god expects of us.  We can admit that we are at least willing to try.  I think that makes some reasonable sense based on my own experience.

We don’t always do right.

We don’t necessarily do any better.

God expects us to do better.  He 3expects us to do something with His Word.  He doesn’t expect us to just take it in and let it sit within us.  He wants us working on what He has for us to do.  Otherwise, we are headed down the right right track.

Do what God says and you’ll meet His expectation for your obedience every single time.

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Explore the Gospel of Mark

“This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” – Mark 1:1 (New Living Translation)

The opening line of the Gospel of Mark sets both the tone and the pace for one of the most action-packed depictions of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ offered through the Gospels.  While Mark’s account is counted among the Synoptic Gospels, it still stands out as particular account of Jesus, “the Messiah, the Son of God.” It offers the reader an opportunity to go along for a roller coaster ride of encounters with Jesus as He goes to and fro, teaching, healing and ministering to the people in the area of Palestine.

Rather than a lofty introduction of the book like his counterparts Luke and Matthew, Mark opens with a single verse that sets everything up from there.  He points out that it is about Jesus.  It is about the Messiah.  It is about the Son of God.  He does not get into genealogy like Matthew.  He does not introduce his position in a case statement like Luke where the opening four verses sound almost like a theological thesis for a seminary student to some degree.  Mark hits his main point and begins to spill evidence of that point from that point on and throughout the entire book.

Start studying the Gospel of Mark.  Read it as part of your daily Bible study or devotional period.  Listen to it on YouVersion or other sites.  Pick up a commentary or Bible study on the Gospel of Mark.  Let it sink in and soak in to your very soul.  Let it speak to you through the Holy Spirit.  Let it help you see Jesus in action and explore it so that you can experience the gospel in a new light.

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Down But Not Defeated

Do yourself a favor and read this Bible passage below both before and after you read this post, then try to keep it in mind as you go through your day.  May God ever show His presence in your life today. 

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹²So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

2 Corinthians 4:8-12  (NIV)

Have you ever been down? You know what I mean.  You’re here in every sense of being present physically, but your mind and heart are wrapped up in so much other stuff that neither one of them is really into where you stand.  You have things on your mind and bogging you down.  Your heart is heavy with grief or misery, even some other feeling that you just cannot seem to explain.

You are down.  Yet, there is good news still.  You are not defeated.

Paul was trying to share that with the believers at Corinth.  He wrote it so eloquently when he penned the words: We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  This life may become a drag at times, to paraphrase him, but we have more life in the death of Jesus that should be springing forth out of our every move and action that we cannot afford to become consumed with this life.

Yes, we do get down.  We do feel depressed at times.  It’s part of the ups and downs of this life.  We just have to remember that we are not defeated.

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Keeping It Real Like Jesus Did

Keep it Real (Urban Dictionary)

Definition: to not inhibit yourself or pretend to be something you are not. (One of many definitions on this page)

Jesus must have been a realist. 

How else do you explain His words and ways?  He used parables to bring the point home.  He compared and contrasted what people have heard or what is written to how it really should be with God’s people.  He kept it real for real.

Jesus didn’t sugar coat or water down His message.  He had to be a realist.  Even while on trial after being arrested, he let Pilate know that no earthly authority compelled Him to do anything that was not in His Father’s will.  Obviously, Brother Pilate was not informed of how Jesus blew the detachment of soldiers away by simply saying: “I am he.”  Jesus demonstrated His power with that I am. 

He was real.

Can we be a little more like Jesus? Seriously.  If we are truly going to be followers of Christ, let’s start by following in His footsteps.  Let’s do like He did and do as He would do.  We have too many euphemisms and schisms to be like Jesus.  We need to drop some of that stuff that hinders us from going beyond our limited scope.  We need to get real with ourselves and stop faking and fronting.  That keeps us from masking our pain, guilt and uneasiness beneath our Sunday’s best and all of that.

We don’t have to fake it.  We don’t have to front.  We can simply look at the Lord’s example and do our best to keep things as real as can be.  From there, the world we see that we are not super sanctified or ultra holy.  They’ll see us for what we are.  They’ll see us as people who catch hell just like the rest of the world, but they’ll see that we are simply keeping it real and keeping the faith.

That’s real talk.

FYI: Here’s the link to that Keep It real t-shirt, too!

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Do the Work

 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.- James 1:22 (ESV)

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” – Hudson Taylor

 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.- 2 Timothy 4:5 (ESV)

Simply put: we have work to do.  In fact, that really is an understatement.  We have plenty of work to do.  The Lord Jesus shared that the harvest is plentiful and the laborers (workers) are few.  We have plenty of work without a surplus of workers to match up with the work.

I am oftentimes saddened when I attend a meeting of people of faith and there is constant talk of what we do not have or who is not there.  It appears that the stated and printed agenda shifts somewhat to a mindset that literally undermine the work at hand.  We may only have so many people with so much work, but I have enough faith to trust God ho has all power. 

 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”- Matthew 9:38 (ESV)

Perhaps, we can take the words of Jesus literally and not see what the Lord did not say for us to do.  He said for us to pray.  He did not say for us to stop all of our work, pray for more workers, then sit around and do nothing until they arrive and are approved and appointed.  That is not what Jesus said for us to do.  He never said for us to stop our work because we have prayed for reinforcements.  He said pray, but He never said for us to stop working.

Like I said, we have some serious work ahead of us.  We have some work to do internally and externally.  We have some work to do inside of the church.  We have some work to do outside of the church.  We have enough work to do all the way up to the Day of the Lord.  Let’s not waste a whole bunch of time on matters that are totally out of our hands and out of our control.  Let’s busy with what is at hand and stay in prayer for what (or who) the Lord has yet to send our way as we continue to do our work.

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Stay Prayerful

“If thou art not a praying person, thou art not a Christian.” – John Bunyan

There certain things that Christians are expected to do.  That’s a given.  Much like Paul asserts throughout his epistles to the believers, we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20).  With the gift of God that comes through grace by faith with salvation, we have entered a new life as Christians.  That being said, we are to live up to the expectations of the Lord for us in our lives as believers.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. – Matthew 5:48 (KJV)

The Lord shared what some have termed as some “hard sayings” in the Gospels.  Yet, if we maintain our connection to our strength and our source, we can do anything and all things (Philippians 4:13).  We have to live by His commands.

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.- Matthew 26:41 (NIV)

We need to stay prayerful.  Why? The Lord said so.  Why? It is for our own benefit.  It is so that we will not fall prey to temptation and go astray.  What’s the big deal? The big deal is that we can want to do right as much as we can say, think or believe it, but the test comes along when the temptation is right at our fingertips.  Will we do right? That’s a prime reason for us to pray.  Jesus said so.

Never stop praying. – 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT)

Keep praying.  Don’t stop praying.  Stay prayerful.  You can say it all sorts of way, but you have to focus on such an activity as prayer.  You go to pray and end up falling asleep.  You go to pray and let your mind drift from your prayer list to your shopping list or the numerous errands that you still have to do for the day.  Focus and firm up on your prayer.  Get more focus so that you can stay on track with your prayer life.

Pray, pray and just keep on praying.

You may not get all of what you wished for, but pray.

You may not get to every place that you wanted to go, but pray.

You may not get out of the storm that has come upon you, but pray.

Practice and learn how to stay prayerful.

You will never stick it out if you never get started.  Start praying in order to stay prayerful.

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A Prayer Plan for the New Year

 ^“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” – Psalm 55:17 (KJV)

With the new year approaching, it seems quite appropriate to share a simple prayer plan. 

A prayer plan?

Yep.  A prayer plan for the new year could assist  you in staying on track just like a daily Bible reading plan can help one staying on track with reading the Bible throughout the year.  The plan offers you an opportunity to get in touch with God on a consistent basis throughout the day.

 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud. . .

David offers the believer the outline for a daily prayer plan.  Evening. . . morning. . . at noon are the time periods that David mentions in this psalm.  He speaks on his own personal commitment to prayer.  He shares his own daily prayer commitment to God.

We can do so, too.  We don’t have to write a psalm or a pledge, not even a covenant.  We just have to commit to the plan and commit the plan to prayer.  That sounds both rhetorical and redundant, but let me make it clear to you.  In order to make a commitment to daily prayer, you will need to have a plan on how to get started.  You can choose to follow David’s prayer prescription or do otherwise.  You just need to decide on a plan that will get you consistent with daily prayer.  Once you have decided on that plan, then you need to commit that decision to prayer.  You will even need to pray to the Lord as you decide upon the plan and pray to the Lord once you have decided on what to do and how to do it.  You need prayer throughout the planning and preparation for engaging in daily prayer.

Pray to God for:

• Clarity
• Commitment
• Consistency

Start with prayer in order to continue in prayer.  Start the year with prayer and stay consistent in prayer.

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To Walk by Faith

For we walk by faith and not by sight – 2 Corinthians 5:7

Faith is not about what we can see, control or orchestrate.

Faith is about what we cannot see.

Faith is about what we do when things are entirely out of our control.

“Faith is absolute trust in God— trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us.” – Oswald Chambers

Faith is about how we hold on when the things that we seek to orchestrate are squashed and all sorts of other inevitable things begin to snowball into an avalanche of trouble and turmoil.

We have to have faith that causes us to walk without having any indication of a map or guide.  We need to have faith on a level that will allow us to stand throughout the seasonal storms of spiritual warfare.  We have to discover the depth of our own faith at a level that will cause us to uphold God’s truth without losing our minds based upon on how bad things look for us.

We need to have the kind of faith that allows us to walk by faith and not by sight.  Our testing will true show the degree of faith that we possess within us.  Find your faith and go forward in faith.  Fully trust and depend on God by His Spirit and based on His Word.

“The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it.”- Oswald Chambers

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