Giving Back

1 Chron 29:14, 17 “..For all things come from Thee, and from Thine own have we given Thee… As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things;..”

Hold loosely to the things of this world. We came into this world with nothing and we will leave it with nothing. From dust we came and to dust we will return. God has made us stewards of what we have. He has blessed us with life and strength to provide food and shelter. The things we have will fade away with time and only that done for Christ will last when this life fades away.  The things we have are given to us by God, He is our great provider. We take what He has provided and the desire of our hearts is to give all things back to Him. We consecrate our life to Him in full surrender to all we have. It is more than just giving back the temporal things of this world, but the greatest offer we can give Him is the offering of our life. He blesses us in many ways, and my heart is grateful and willing to give back to Him anything He desires. 

With A Great Heart

Mark 14:6, 8a  And Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on Me…She hath done what she could;…”

Everyone has limits on what they are able to do. We all have expectations of ourselves and others. We measure what can be done by our abilities and our willingness. God sees our willingness to serve and then gives us the help we need to fulfill His will. Our limitations are caused by many things that are beyond our control. God does not see what great things we have done, but the great heart we do it with. A great heart will give it their best and leave the rest to God. The attitude of a heart for God is to give all we have to Him. He will take what we give Him and multiply it hundred fold according to His will. Jesus desires that we just do what we can do, and then believe Him to tell the rest of the story.

God's Grace

Romans: 5:15 “But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.’-

Essential truth from the Bible is that we are all born in sin and need Jesus to forgive and save us from our sin. It is God’s grace, unmerited favor given to man that he might have eternal life. His grace reaches down to all humanity and this gift is offered to any who will take it. This truth is not renegotiable, not up for debate and cannot be interpreted in any other way. Sin keeps us from God, His grace, through Jesus redeems us back to God. “I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in, He’s a wonderful Savior to me.” “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see” “Tho sin aboundeth in my heart, His grace aboundeth more” The song list can go on forevers. Thank God for His grace.

Light Afflictions

2 Corinth 4:17 “7 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,”-

Trails, afflictions, hard times often seem like they never end. They seem to weigh heavy and sometimes we feel as tho they are crushing us to the ground. For the moment, it would seem that life is more than we can bare. Yes, we are trouble on every side. But it light of eternity, these afflictions are but a moment in time that will come to pass. How small and insignificant they will be when we look back and realize that they were but a vapor that came and went. When we consider that eternity is forever, and what we face today is but for a moment, we don’t need to despair. Hold on, keep the faith, keep believing, for we live not for this world, but for the world to come. 

The Silent Witness

1 Thess 1:8b “…but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything.”

The silent witness. Spreading the Gospel of the Word is more than just audibly speaking. The greatest witness we can have for Jesus is to be an imitator of Him. Our faith in God is seen in the way we show others the love of God by the way we treat our neighbors and by the things we do and don’t do. Others seeing how we live will see that there is more to serving God that just talking about it. We are the living Bible to many who know not Christ. When we claim the Name of Jesus as our Lord and Savior and walk contrary to His Word, it speaks of hypocrisy. Being a true witness for Christ must first be seen in the way we live. God opens doors for us to speak and the Holy Spirit is there to help us speak the truth of the Gospel, but the real witness we show the world need not speak anything. The silent witness speaks volumes. 

Work in Progress

Eph. 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath beforehand ordained, that we should walk in them.-

We are a work in progress. He is the Potter we are the clay. The work continues daily and each day we become more like Jesus. We must be willing to submit our lives into the hand of God. He is the master of taking something that is worthless and making it valuable. Sin in our lives marred His work. He desires that we live spotless from the world and walk in good works. The works of Satan hinders the development of His workmanship. There are things in our lives that He wants to remove and change. He will show us the way to go and the way to walk. As a new creation in Christ, He changes our lives to reflect His image. It will change the way we think. Our lips will speak only what pleases Him, we abstain from that which is evil and unholy, we walk in holiness and our fruit of our lives is seen in the way we treat others. This is a work in progress, He is still working on me.

God Alone

Isaiah 37:20 “…You are the Lord, You alone.”-

There is only one God and He is Lord of all. God alone created heaven and earth, God alone took man from the clay of the earth and formed him into His image. God alone is all we need when life gets stressful and the worries of life load us down. When trouble comes are way, God alone is able to make a way through and help us walk the path before us. The problems we face are real and there are many who have fallen because they have failed to trust God alone. They have relied on their own strength or earthly means to help them. They failed to pray and seek God alone. In the dark times, when we cannot see our way through, we can turn to God who is Lord of all, and He alone will be there to meet our every need.