6: 50 Days Freed

There are some who have taken the freeing power of Jesus and created a system where they use their freedom as an excuse to sin. Why shouldn’t I have the freedom to do whatever I want, I am forgiven for it. This mentality may work for a moment but to create a life and routine reveals the heart of the man. One can only dance around in the snake pit so long before they are bitten.

 

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Romans 6: 1-2

 

The grace extended to us on the cross was sufficient to cover all our sins past, present and future. But it was never meant to become an excuse to sin. The power of sin was defeated but sin will not be completely destroyed until the day the enemy is thrown into the pit of fire and the new heaven and new earth are put in place. As Paul writes to the Romans we don’t need to dabble in sin to prove the grace of God. He displayed that already for us on the cross and when we accepted his forgiveness.

 

When we accept Jesus as our savior and redeemer his grace removes the sin that we give him to remove. We accept his grace but there are times where we hold on to sin and tuck it away trying to hide it from him. Those secrets that “he doesn’t need to know about” are not really hidden from him. If we don’t give them to him it becomes like a cavity, it may not bother us right away but one day if not treated will become an unbearable pain we will have to deal with, it will be exposed. If we do not deal with it then the temptation to live in sin will be increased.

 

Before we accepted Jesus we were living in a cheap motel room, when we turn our lives over to him he checks us out of that flea-bitten motel room and checks us into a 5 star hotel. So why then do we insist on returning to the cheap motel room? It could be because we feel comfortable there, or all our stuff is still there. Jesus asks us to leave that all behind. He promised life and life abundantly, we need to stop clinging on to the things from our past that kept us from him. This doesn’t mean we have to change our personalities to follow Christ, our uniqueness is a trait of God. But we need to leave behind all the things and traits that cause us to sin. To use an old cliché, we need to Let Go and Let God. Let go of the things that work to hold us back from our new life in Christ, and let God show us how to live life in freedom. You won’t be disappointed with your choice.

 

As you read this today I am asking you, are you living life anew and fresh in Christ? Or are you trying to incorporate your old life, walking through the same snake pit you were before accepting his grace? Maybe you haven’t accepted his grace yet but have heard all about it and want to. This could be your first time hearing that Jesus loves you and wants to connect with you. Whatever the case I pray that you will see God for who he is and that he loves you. The creator of the world loves you and completed a plan to free you from sin.

 

Father, I pray today that those reading this will step out of sin and live lives aimed at walking with you. It isn’t easy and we all make mistakes, but we choose to follow you. Thank you for your grace and how it has freed those who accept it. Move among your people to share this grace with others by telling them about you and inviting them to church. For those reading this who have not yet experienced your love, I pray that even today they will experience you for who you are. Use me today. Amen

 

 

 

 

 

Day 9: 50 Days of Impact

During our Christian walk we can feel like what we are doing is producing no results. Some have an apathy towards their faith, leading to a whatever style of faith. Some of the things we do can be mundane, boring, plain. But these daily grind things push your faith forward, what you do today will have an impact on someone’s life.

 

“Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.

 

“My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, “Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand.””

Romans 15:7, 20-21 NLT

 

My drive moving forward is not thinking of myself but about others. But sometimes it is hard to just get started. Forward momentum is difficult when you have been sitting so long and you have become seized up. No matter how much you want to move you can’t. You brain may say do it but your whole body doesn’t help you out. The Holy Spirit is the answer to this, he can and will give you that push you need to get started in forward momentum, and he will be there with you, ensuring that you keep moving. If you trust him.

 

You don’t need a big event or exciting church service to start you momentum. Finding something to do to help others either in church or outside. Could be folding the bulletins, dusting, making coffee or handing our flyers. Outside it could be doing random acts of kindness, putting change in parking meters, loving those who have no one who loves them. To move forward you must put your foot on the gas.

 

Dear Jesus, today is the day I get moving in sharing about you. I don’t want to be sitting seized up. I have the opportunities help me to take advantage of them. I need to stop being afraid and trust the Holy Spirit will lead me in what to say. I will trust you. Amen

 

Day 42: Original 50 Days of Pray Revisited

 Thoughts on Day 42: We as a people are, for the most, part quick to jump all over someone when they do something wrong. We see this today especially with the media quick to run stories not always checking the facts. These stories, rumours, half truths or even full truths can break trust between the best of friends.  We quickly lose trust and our opinion fades. But is this just one incident? If a limb on you tree dies or is sick you don’t chop down the whole tree? No, you prune the sick or dead part and encourage it to grow again and live. I say this because I feel that many people have seen faith as sick or dying due to one or two incidents or experiences, and instead of pruning the bad part they just chopped the whole tree down in their lives and moved away from it. I am here to tell you that they never got it all and the roots are still there waiting.

DAY FORTY-TWO

But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims, A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God! But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to. (Romans 10:14-17 MSG)

Are you trusting that Gods word is for everyone? Do you care that there are lost people out side your door? Do you truly believe that Jesus wants to save the lost? Or do you think that some people are beyond saving?

Our actions truly speak louder than words, but it doesn’t mean we should be silent. When we walk the walk, we need to be able to talk the talk. Back it up.

One of the hardest things I am coming to realise is that people’s trust and respect for you can be lost in one action or deed. Someone may have high regard for you, and when you screw up, because we are still human, and do something opposed to our normal character, how quickly they are to judge and say something like “well that’s not very Christian of you”.

We should then apologize for our actions, and if we are sincere, then continue on, if they choose to keep that view of us from now on there is little we can do but keep on walking in Christ and pray they will see that one or two moments in time does not define who we are.

But pushing past that, are you a sight that takes others breath away? Meaning, when someone sees you, or talks to you, are you different than the world or do you conform? When around the water cooler and a dirty joke is told do you stay and laugh or do you excuse yourself from the situation? When you see a fault at work do you work to correct it or bring it to a superior’s attention, or do you just ignore it?

All these things and more are show people around you who you are. If they can trust you, then when you tell them about the God whom you trust in, they will be more willing to trust Him.

Dear Jesus, am I trustworthy to my peers and in my job? Do people see the trust I have in You? I want to be trustworthy in the life You have given me so that other will see the love and trust I have in You. Please share with me the trust I need to make my life a mirror of Yours. Amen

Day 21: Original 50 Days of Pray Revisited

Thoughts on Day 21: If in reading my works you haven’t already picked up on it; I believe that no marriage is hopeless. We need to be teaching our children as well as demonstrating to them through our marriages that it is worth fighting for. Never give up on your spouse, we fell out of love is not an excuse but a cop out. There are extreme cases, but outside of those, we need to work at our marriages to keep them alive and fresh.

 

5 March 15

 DAY TWENTY-ONE
Romans 8: 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 5 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

How much should we love our wives? Ephesians 5:25 states just as much as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. How much does Christ love his church? Romans 8:38-39 tells us the love that Christ has for His Church.

Let that sink in for a minute. Do you love your wife that much? Wives do you feel that love?

Husbands if you feel that this kind of love is something you can’t offer, you are wrong. Marriage is not marrying the one you love but loving the one you married. Don’t stop working at your increasing the love for your wife.

Wives, if you feel unloved in your marriage, work on bringing love back. Do what ever it takes to rekindle your love, go on dates, turn the TV off, reconnect.

Together you can have this kind of love just like Christ has for the church. He doesn’t give up on the church, nor should you give up on your spouse.

Dear Jesus, we live our lives sometimes as fast-moving trains, we buzz past the problems and miss our stops. But God, we need help slowing down and rekindling the love that You want us to have for each other. The same love that You have for Your Church. Instill that in our hearts today. Amen

Day 5: Original 50 Days of Pray Revisited

Day 5 Thoughts

It is so amazing to see how God uses people in spite of the things in their past. He can use those experiences to reach others. We must not glorify our sin, but we can use those moments as a tool in our spiritual toolbox to relate to those we are trying to reach.

 

17 Feb 15

DAY FIVE
But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Romans 6:22-23 MSG)
If you have been around a while in the family of God, have you experienced a healed life? In Romans written above if talks about “A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!”, it sounds pretty awesome.
We all want that, once we have accepted Christ into our lives it becomes our heart’s desire. But what does put-together life really mean, and why don’t I feel it?
Sin cause our lives to be broken, we think we can superglue our problems back together with quick fixes. That was never God’s true intentions. He sent Jesus to take our brokenness, gather all the pieces of our lives that God intended us to have, put us in the fire and build us back making us put together. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Thank you Jesus that you don’t stop there.
We are still part of this world. We may sin time to time. Our put together lives will chip and crack. Maybe why you don’t feel put together is because you are not. Jesus the same one who put you back together when you asked Him into your life is right there to fix the chip or crack of sin with a bond of love stronger than any glue. He will make you new again and put back together.
But why then do I have to deal with the results of my sin if I have repented and Jesus forgave me? Look at the story of David, in his sin he committed adultery and murder. We know that he asked for forgiveness and God used David’s bloodline still to reveal Jesus. But if you read 2 Samuel you will see David still had to reap what he sowed, his son raped his half-sister, then was murdered by his other son, he lost the throne, & and had to wander alone for a time. Maybe you feel like David, you have asked God for his forgiveness but you are dealing with the fallout of your sin.
I say all this not to justify all the problems in your life, but to ask you to guard your life. Take the time to weigh out your choices. Are they pure? How will they affect your walk with God? Could there be disastrous results if I do this?

Dear Jesus, today I pray that whoever needed to hear this will be encouraged. You are the one who puts us together and I thank you so much for that. I know it cost you so much. Help us to be a people who think before we do. Weighing out our actions, looking before we go forward into a pit. I pray right now that you will renew my life, and refine my life if I have any chips or cracks. Put me back together. Thank you for your gift of eternal life.  Let my life be an example to those around me, let me see them as you do. They matter to you so they matter to me. Amen

Day 30: 50 Days of Change

“Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.”‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If you ever need to send someone to a chapter in the bible on what it means to be a Christian, Romans 12 is a great starting point. It is like a Coles notes summary. Here we have Paul writing to the Romans, giving them an account of early Christians and how what they have done is shaping the world. Christians are being martyred and tournures for their belief in a resurrected Jesus. 

Yet here Paul admonishes then to rejoice in their confident hope, he doesn’t just tell them to accept what is happening to those brothers and sister in the faith. No he says rejoice in our confident hope. The hope he is speaking of is the hope found in the salvation of Jesus, and what he did for us on the cross. Not only does he tell them to rejoice, he then tells them to be patient  in trouble. Today this would cause pipe, to riot in the streets, the injustice that is happening. Yet Paul tells them to not get all worked up, pray.

Prayer is a powerful weapon. It has more power then we can even imagine. Even writing this I can’t put into words or describe the importance of prayer, to do would be an injustice but what I do know is prayer can move mountains, prayer can heal the sick, prayer can clam the most tourmented soul, prayer is communicating with a God who loves us. 

What’s your prayer life like? I personally feel weak and need to spend more time with Jesus in prayer. We all lead busy lives, yet we must not neglect time with the one who has saved us. I challenge you to change it up and spend some more time  prayer moving forward, let it build confidence and patience in your life.

Father, I am sorry for not spending more time in prayer. I have no excuse to why my prayer time has been shorter then normal. You are most important in my life and I want my life to reflect that. Jesus I want to have confidence to be able to fulfil the mission you have called me to. Build that in me through prayer, let me be patient with others as I tell them about you. They matter to you Jesus, so they matter to me. Amen