Category: Encouragement

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We Can Be A Loving Family Today!

For September 13, 2020
When the Pharisaic Lawyer challenged Jesus to identify the greatest Commandment, the Lord quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18,

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV).

Later, Jesus tells how our “Greatest Commandment” has been changed—love as I love you,

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My Disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35 NKJV).

As Christians, we are united under a new love mandate to extend our unity and love to become family—a Christian family—with perfect, eternal unity that will forever reveal the matchless wisdom and power of God,

We have been adopted into an eternal family of God. As children of God and joint heirs with Christ, we have the privilege of sharing both in His sufferings and in His subsequent glory. God gives us the privilege of walking the same path Christ walked, enduring sufferings in this life that we may also receive great glory in the life to come. Because we are God’s children, our relationship with each other is far deeper and more intimate than the relationship that angels, for example, have to one another. For we are all members of one family.1

The Holy Spirit enables us to share in common many fulfilling moments that strengthen our resolve to follow Christ. Daily we experience how God loves us, protects us, and provides us with everything we need. We grow ever confident that He directs our steps, and that He will never leave or forsake us,

Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9 NKJV).

The Holy Spirit also solidifies our faith in God and in His Word so that we grow to rely on His eternal promises and providence instead of our subjective thoughts and fickle emotions. He will provide us with all the spiritual resources we need to live for Christ victoriously.

The Bible presents people who have fruitful and fulfilling relationships with the Lord that begin early and last throughout their lives. This is truly the Christian heritage and legacy to strive for, a special and unique witness that shows everyone we are one—even as Jesus is one with the Father.

Those of us who follow this pattern by coming to Christ early, learning God’s Word, attending church, learning from spiritually mature teachers and pastors in discipleship, and using our gifts in service are living testimonies of His miraculously transforming power.

The Holy Spirit  enables us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to share God’s Word properly, so that He can attract, convict, convince, and inspire others unto right thinking and living (2 Peter 3:18). Then, we can present His righteousness, grace, and love through our worship, service, and fellowship.

The Holy Spirit also works in us to share the life and message of Jesus Christ effectively. Here, we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. Then we can offer a timely response to those who ask us about the unfailing hope within us, with meekness and godly reverence (1 Peter 3:15).

Ultimately, it is because of this one incredible evening, that with the aid of the Holy Spirit, we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us both now and forever (Philippians 4:13). Let’s be a loving family today!

What a Wonderful Savior!

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We Can Know Jesus’ Intercessory Power Today!

For September 6, 2020
On His way to the cross, Jesus intercedes for all those who will follow Him,

I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them (John 17:20-26 NIV).

Jesus’ prayer ensures that as Christians together, we will experience exciting and fulfilling moments to enhance our knowledge and strengthen our faith. We experience how God loves us, protects us, and provides us with everything we need. Over time, we grow confident that He directs our steps, and that He will never leave or forsake us.

These experiences help to solidify our faith in God and in His Word so that we grow to rely on His eternal promises and providence instead of our subjective thoughts and feelings.

For instance, we can be confident that our faith in His redeeming sacrifice will grant us the forgiveness of sin and make us new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Nevertheless, some believe that experiencing a flawed past somehow validates our Christian life and witness. This could be based on the popular notion that we are more effective in ministry after having lived tragic lives of sin before coming to Christ. Although it is always appropriate to celebrate the life that we now have in Christ, ministry effectiveness is up to God.

All Christians should have a support and accountability network to help guard against moral and spiritual failure. However, those who have experienced years of compulsive and addictive behavior should complete some form of clinical treatment in conjunction with their Christian discipleship program before serving in Christian leadership. Such precautions will help lessen the risk of harm or not placing others at risk of severe spiritual, physical, emotional, or psychological injury.

Moreover, there are those who feel that numerical growth, monetary gain, large edifices and notoriety are the indicators for effective ministry. However, three essential indicators, our hearts, our motives, and God’s perfect will, are ignored. The Lord knows whether our hearts and motives are vile or pure, and His will is revealed accordingly. These indicators will always define ministry effectiveness from His perspective, which is all that matters.

The Bible presents a pattern of fruitful relationships with the Lord that begin early and last through life. Many of us have followed this pattern by coming to Christ early, learning God’s Word, attending church, submitting to spiritually mature mentors and pastors in discipleship, and using our gifts in service are living demonstrations of His miraculous power.

We strive grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), so that we can share God’s Word properly. Then, He can attract, convict, convince, and inspire others unto right thinking and living. In this way, we present His righteousness, grace, and love through our worship, service, and fellowship.

In other words, we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. Then we can offer a timely response to those who ask us about the unfailing hope within us, with meekness and godly reverence (1 Peter 3:15). Won’t you experience the fullness of His intercession today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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The Lord Can Be With Us Today!

For August 30, 2020
This earth is not our final destination. The Bible tells us we are mere pilgrims and strangers traveling through it. For some, the journey may be thirty years or less while others exceed the seventy-year benchmark given in Psalm 90:10. Whatever time we have, Job 14:5 tells us the Lord has determined the exact day and time of our death.

But while we await our departure, the Lord has promised everlasting communion with both He, and the Father through the Spirit. Before going to the cross, He comforts us with His promise to return,

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am (John 14:1-3 NLT).

Our sin separates us from God. However, the good news or Gospel is that God can change our governing disposition from vile and sinful to pure and holy, through the Born Again experience (Regeneration) as one observes,

“Regeneration is that act of God by which the governing disposition of the soul is made holy…It is God turning the soul to Himself.”2

Jesus says He was sent into the world not to condemn it, but to save it (John 3:17). Then just before the Ascension, He reassures us He would be with us forever (Matthew 28:20). His is an intimate, communion that lasts forever. For in Christ, we have the Comforter who gently comforts, helps, guides, teaches, and secures us until we inhabit our eternal home (John 16:7-15).

The Lord is with you before you were born; shaping you in your mother’s womb; planning your bright hope and expected end that will inspire others and bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 29:11).

The Lord is with you, and each day you understand even more how your experiences with Him on earth are merely a foretaste of the eternal life that awaits you in His glorious Kingdom. The Lord is with you, and your faith begins and ends with Him.

He is your hope, peace, expectation, your sun and shield, and your exceeding great reward (Genesis 15:1). He gives you “grace and glory, and no good thing will He withhold from you as you walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

Our Lord provides the foundation on which our being, position, choices, and destiny are secured forever. For this reason, 2 Corinthians 5:7 states “we walk with the Lord daily by faith, and not by sight.” With a humble, reverent, and sincere faith in Jesus Christ, we are certain to reach our glorious final destination.

God is with us now, and He will be with us as we experience the pinnacle of His redemptive work of Glorification, where “the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary will be at rest” (Job 3:17).

He will supply us with an immortal body that will allow us to experience His holy, eternal presence fully. Free from sin, pain, and disease, we will be completely capable of having eternal communion with God as we see Him “as He is” and are like Him (1 John 3:2). Won’t you trust Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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We Can Be Transformed Today

For August 23, 2020
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NKJV). He captures our necessity for transformation to gain access to the Kingdom of God, insisting our transformation is necessary. He also assures our transformation is both accessible and simple, only requiring our faith in Him,

  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17 NKJV).

Faith is the means to receive God’s forgiveness and righteous, which is consistent with two Old Testament Scriptures:

      • And [Abraham] believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith (Genesis 15:6 NLT).
      • Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV).

We must experience a dynamic, spiritual transformation inside us before we can see the Kingdom of God.  The good news is that God can change us through the Born Again experience.

We confess our sin before God, (turn from its continual practice), and we place our faith in the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ to make us righteous before God. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, we become “new creatures” in Christ.

Now, loving and pleasing God is our new all-consuming, lifelong objective. No longer do we seek the things of the world. They have become dead to us, and we are no longer subject to them. Our new aim is to emulate our Lord and live for Him to the best of our ability for the rest of our lives as illustrated below.

The Old Life (Dead)

The New Life (Alive)
    •   Proud and selfish
    • Humble and selfless
    •  Aggressive and villainous
    • Assertive and virtuous
    •  Practice deceit and duplicity
    • Practice sincerity and truth
    •  Seek to victimize others through   hypocrisy, betrayal, and lies
    • Seek to interact with God, others, and us with genuineness, and faithfulness

We live out our identity and purpose as Children of God as the Holy Spirit enables the “who we are when no one is watching” to interact with God, others, and ourselves safely and appropriately—doing no harm.

We are “proof” of God’s marvelous plan of redemption, authenticating how Jesus Christ can live and reign the hearts of fallen humanity as Savior and Lord.  Human lives change drastically in the presence of the Living Christ, as they become Christ-centered and Spirit-controlled. Won’t you give Him your heart today?

What a Wonderful Savior?

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Jesus Christ: The Son of Man and Son of God!

For August 16, 2020
In their futile attempt to disprove that Jesus Christ was both God and man, naysayers argue we cannot rely on what Jesus Christ did and still does for fallen humanity to redeem us. In short, we need more than Jesus Christ to earn God’s favor.

My reply is, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12 AKJV).

I trust the Lord and His leadership because He did not say He was one of many ways to God. Instead, He insisted that He was the only way to God,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6 AKJV).

Jesus Christ could make these bold assertions because He was the Son of God (God) and the Son of Man (human). He stated Abraham rejoiced to see His day and said, “before Abraham was, I AM.” He was the Seed of the Woman promised to Abraham, through whom the entire human race would greatly benefit (Genesis 3:15; 12:1–3).

Yet He was God’s Suffering Servant, who paid the price for our sins so that we can be forgiven and redeemed before God, as Isaiah foretells, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to His own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6 AKJV). As the Good Shepherd, His vicarious death imparts new, abundant life to His precious sheep just as He promised,

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 AKJV).

Our Lord’s simple mission and message was distinct from anything the world had seen or heard before,

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (John 3:3, Matthew 22:37-40 AKJV).

Peter expounded on these new and radical ideals when He answered the naysayers of his day, “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 AKJV).

Thus, in the final analysis, absolute safekeeping is ours through Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose for our Justification (Romans 4:25). By our faith in Him alone, we can understand and acknowledge Him as more than just a person who suffered a tragic death on a cross because we also know Him as our:

Advocate, Alpha and Omega, Bread of Life, Bridegroom, Christ, Deliverer, Faithful and True, Friend, Good Shepherd, Great God, Great Physician, High Priest, Immanuel, Intercessor, King of Glory, King of Kings, Lamb of God, Light of the World, Lion of Judah, Lord, Lover of Our Soul, Mighty God, Mediator, Messiah, Prince of Peace, Redeemer, Resurrection and Life, Righteous Judge, Rock and Fortress, Savior, True Prophet, The Truth, The Way, and The Word of God.

Having fulfilled His redemptive work as the Son of Man and Son of God, Jesus Christ is the only way we today can have our sins forgiven and have fellowship with God forever. Won’t you trust in Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

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