Thoughts for the New Year

Is it just me or has 2012 flown by?  It seems to have come and gone in a whirlwind, and left many of us wondering at what all has happened over the past year.  Did we accomplish our goals that we set out to do?  Did we make a difference somehow in this world that we live?  Many times a lot of us make new resolutions for what we want to accomplish in the upcoming year.  Things that we hope will last more than a week, when in reality they don't.  Still, we have this hope for future things.  And as Christians, we sometimes find ourselves asking what can we do this year?  And, can we stick to it?  It all seems to focus around change.  Yet, there is always a fear of the unknown when change comes around.

Jeremiah 29:11-13
"For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."

This verse really rings true to any believer.  In whatever we plan to be different for this year, God already knows about it.  And as long as we are seeking His will in our lives as the driving force for the changes that we want to make, we have no reason to fear.  All of us were born with a purpose.  A purpose designed by God before the creation of the world.  He knows our beginning, our end, and everything in between.  And the plans are for our own good.  Contrary to what you may hear from some people, everything that happens in our lives is for our good.  God does not delight in bad things happening to us.  He has a future for us, and that should give us hope for what is to come.  And when we pray, He listens.  When we seek Him with all of our heart, we will find Him. 

So now that we have no reason to fear this new beginning, what now?  I have three things that I believe will help us as we look forward to 2013.

1.  Forget the Past  
 
Philippians 3:13-14
"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Whatever has happened last year, be it good or bad, it is in the past.  We cannot go back and change what has happened in our lives.  Many people spend a lot of time dwelling on this.  A famous quote I hear a lot "If I knew then, what I know now" comes to mind.  That is a chapter in our lives that has come to a close.  We must leave it in the past and reach forward to the future and what God has prepared for us in it.  There are new challenges, new opportunities for service, and new blessings on the horizon.  In the end, there is a robe and a crown of life waiting on us.  That is what we are working toward.  We must live each day with the end in site.  Thinking of heaven makes every little thing that happens here seem not worth worrying about.

2.  Wait on the Lord

Isaiah 40:31
"Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary." 

We must understand that things will happen in God's timing and not our own.  His plan has been laid out in our lives, and nothing is going to change that.  We must take comfort in that, and let God lead.  Many times we tend to take matters into our own hands.  Because lets face it, none of us are very patient people in this day and time.  I know that I am not.  And when we do, we tend to make a mess of things.  But God has a time and place set aside for everything.  And His timing is perfect.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end." 

3.  Treat Each New Day as a Special Gift



Lamentations 3:22-24 
"The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” 

Each new day is just that, a new day.  And each new day is a gift from God.  His love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, grace extend to us brand new each day.  He is always there for us.  So, we likewise, need to be there for Him each and every day.  How can we do this?  We need to talk to Him, seek Him, and search for ways to serve Him.  We should be in a constant state of prayer.  Yes, He already knows what is on our hearts.  But, it is still important for us to pray.  Because our faith is based on a relationship.  And you cannot have a good relationship when one party is not communicating.  We seek His will in our lives by reading and studying our bibles.  The scripture is a written account of how He wants us to live.  If we try to model our lives based on these scriptures, we find ourselves drawing closer to His will in our lives.  Lastly, we need to serve.  Our main commandment is to witness to the lost.  This is not only done by the conversations that we have with others, but in the way that we live.  Our actions show who we truly are.  They are our biggest witness to this world.  We need to share the good news of His birth, and His death for all of our sins.

Perhaps you may be reading this today, and have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  If not, all of the hope that is mentioned above is not in your life.  For without Christ we have no hope.  I urge you to seek Him.  He can take anything that you are going through right now, and turn it around.  He can take your life and give you hope.

2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."  

He is the only one that can do this for you.  If you are seeking, I encourage you to click the tab at the top of this page for the Plan of Salvation.  Read through this, as it explains the need that we have for Christ.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this devotion, and I hope that it helps with the hope of this new year.  I pray God will bless you all in 2013! 

Dare to be Different

I am exceedingly troubled by the things I see going on around us in society. In North Carolina we have a constitutional amendment on our primary ballot. It is to define marriage as one man and one woman. This amendment of course is under strong attack. And is not just the homosexuals that are attacking it. There are others making claims that this amendment should not be voted for, for many other reasons. They say it will be bad for the economy, make domestic violence cases harder to prosecute, and affect child custody cases. All of these claims are to get people to look at things that have nothing to do with the amendment. They are slamming the churches that support it. But the saddest part are those that say that they are saved, and believe that God's word is inerrant that refuse to vote for it. They are allowing themselves to be swayed by opponents by either being afraid to stand on what they believe, or giving into the arguments which have nothing to do with the amendment and accept a worldly view of things.

It seems that anything with a Christian meaning or even undertone is seen as taboo today. And it seems like we are always under attack for believing the way that we do. Whether it is a malicious attempt towards us, or a subtle ignoring of what we believe, we are labeled as ignorant, or holier than thou. I know of many who claim to be believers that try to play with the world. They do not take a stand on what they believe for fear of the repercussions they would face from those around them that they believe are friends. They do not want to be seen as different. Or, they see nothing wrong with the worldly lifestyle that contradicts what we learn in the Bible. However, that is not what the scripture teaches about those that choose to follow God.

Genesis 6:5-9
"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God."

Noah was different. Out of all the people on earth at this time, he was the only one who was faithful to God. He did not compromise himself over wanting to fit in with the others in the world. Later in this story we see where he built an ark for him, his family, and the animals to survive a great flood. You can probably imagine what people were saying about him as he did this. But he did not care. He wanted to please God and God alone.

Daniel 1:8-9
"But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials..."


Daniel made a stand. In the midst of imprisonment in a foreign land, he choose to honor God at whatever the cost. No matter what the consequences were, he was going to be faithful. Even the commander who liked Daniel tried to get him to do as every other person imprisoned did. But Daniel held true, and was blessed greatly by God. He faced trials again when he was later thrown in the lions den for refusing to submit to the King as a god. And once again, God rewarded his faith. Daniel chose to be different.

2 Corinthians 11:23-27
"Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure."

Paul suffered for the Gospel. Paul started out as a pharisee. After his conversion, he did not let anything come between him and sharing the Gospel of Christ. He was beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, in danger around any corner, yet he choose to follow Christ no matter the consequences. He did not care what people thought about him or did to him. He dared to be different.

Now this is just a sampling of individuals in the bible that choose to stand on their faith inspite of what people may have said, believed, or done to them. They were not ashamed of what they believed. They did not sit back and hope that no one would ask what they thought. They were courageous. They defended their faith against all odds. There was no doubt in what they believed, as is in the case of people today. They say the believe, but their actions contradict it.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17
"Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

When we receive salvation we are made to be different. A change happens to us that causes us to want to do away with all that we were before. We no longer have a part in the world in a spiritual since. They do not want us. They are always against what we believe. It is not us as a person, it is the message of the One in which we stand.

John 15:18-19
"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you."


We need not be ashamed of who we are. We have the honor of being claimed sons of God. It is our job to spread the teachings of Jesus regardless of the consequences. We must take a stand on our beliefs no matter what some body else thinks. Why? Because we are different.

I choose to be different. How about you?

Thanks for reading, and God bless you all this week!

Starting Things Anew

Happy New Years everyone!!!!!!!!! 2011 brought many joys and some sorrows to my life. I am thankful to make it through to another year. I was blessed when my wife gave birth to our third child, Lauren. She was a band-aid on broken hearts as 2010 left us with two miscarriages. I am blessed to still be employed in a rocky economy, and I was blessed to start this blog in January of last year. Writing here on this page has really increased my focus on God, and what He wants from me here on this earth. I pray that God will continue to bless me in writing this blog, and that He will use it to His glory, and not mine.

Traditionally, everyone this year likes to come up with a New Year's resolution. Something that we are going to try better to do this year, that we could not do last year. While viewing the news last week, a learned of a poll that was done that said that 85% of people quit on their resolution in the first month, and 90% never make it past the second month. I can honestly say that I am in the 85% group that never makes it past the first month. I have finally got to the point that I did not make them anymore. But, I noticed that all of them were of a physical nature. I wanted to lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, etc. All things that I tried to do on my own for me. There was never any inclusion of God in what I was doing. So I decided to do things a little differently a year or two ago. Instead, I just try to take a good honest look at my spiritual life, and see where I need the most work, and do my best to work on it that year. And I pray for God's guidance and help to get me through. Is it always easy, no, absolutely not. Will I fail? I will probably make many mistakes along the way, and there will be consequences I am sure. But, I know that God is right there with me.

This caused me to think on the story of King David. The first time we see David is in 1 Samuel 16. He was hand picked by God to become King of Israel. David was faithful to God. He demonstrated that in the killing of Goliath in chapter 17 of that same book as well as the rest of 1 Samuel and the beginning of 2 Samuel. However, in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, we see David fall. It is here that he falls to sin in the murder of Uriah and the affair with Bathsheba. This was certainly not a good time in David's life. We see his punishment with all that happens in his family afterwards. However, David does ask for forgiveness. He asked God for His help. And God was faithful. And because of this, David was able to persevere through his trials.

God will help you through things that are going on in your life.
Philippians 4:11-13
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

To those who are lost, there is a promise.
Romans 10:9-11
"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”"

And once you are truly saved, you will be forever new.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
"Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,"

So, with this new year, will you choose to make God a part of your resolution this year? If you are lost, and seeking God, I encourage you to click the link at the top of this page for the Plan of Salvation. If you are a believer, I hope that this will help you set good goals this year to help in your walk with God.

Thanks for reading and God Bless you all in 2012!

I Need a Re-do!

Since I have begun with this blog, I feel that I have become pretty computer savy. I have learned to do things that I could not imagine. However, with all that I have learned to do with computers, I still make some careless mistakes. Sometimes I wish that I would have spent more time paying attention in my grammer classes and computer classes growing up. It is so nice having things like spell check, and grammer check. However, my favorite feature is the Undo button. I have had the occasional erase everything by accident moment when typing research papers and coming up with assingments for my students at school. Thankfully there is always the Undo button at the top that I can click and my work would go back to like it was before my error. In a way, that is how Christ is. At one time in our history man was perfect. There was a time when Adam and Eve were sinless. But, because of their sin in the garden, a curse was passed down to all mankind. We were separated from God. The sin in our lives acts like a divide that pulls us out of the perfect will of God in which we were designed. We were a great mistake in the history of life. With all these mistakes, Jesus came, lived a perfect life, and died so that we could become rightous. He is our Undo button. His love and grace can undo all that we do, and all that we have become. Christ is the only way to cover our sins, kind of like what the older generation used white out for. There is none other holy enough, or great enough to forgive those sins. John 14:6 reads, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but by me. He is our advocate. He is the one that makes intercession to the Father on our behalf. I like knowing that I have an undo button here on this earth. It is nice to know that when I make mistakes in this life, that I have a Savior great enough to undo it for me. Thank God I am saved.

Thanks for reading, and God bless you all this week!

Bananas

My family and I love bananas. We love to eat them, and sometimes go bananas. Bananas are one of the staple snack foods in my house. This is great because they are a healthy alternative to some of the junk food out there. It seems like we buy a bunch every week, and sometimes twice a week. However, every once in a while, we will have a lull in the number of bananas we eat in a week. They are left on the counter and become mushy and brown. They turn into something that we do not want to eat, or worthless to us. Now my wife, being the excellent mom/wife/cook that she is, will take those bad bananas, mix in some cinnamon, raisins, sugar, and flour and make homemade banana bread. It is so delicious. This makes me think of how God sees us and what He can do with us. What is my worth in this world? Nothing. In God's eyes I am a sinful, wretch of a man. On my own, I am not worthy of anything. However, I have forgiveness of my sins. I have turned my life over to Him. I am doing my best to honor Him, and deprive myself. 2 Corinthians 5:16-18 "Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation," Just like my wife takes something that seems to be worthless and ready for the trash and turns it into something that is wonderful, God can do the same in us. When we become saved, we are a new creature. That means that we change our lives. The things(sins) that we once enjoyed, we will no longer need or want. We are turned into a being whose purpose is to glorify God in all that we do. This pleases Him. Just as the banana bread is pleasing to my family. So just remember, when you feel alone, and like the pressure of this world are on you, and when you sin, that God can take anything, or anyone, and make a blessing out of it.

Thanks and God Bless You all this week!