2015 Blessing

May this New Year be Your Best Year and may Blessings continue to follow you Many More Years to come. May God be the Center of your Life and He will bring new Good Things. 

Allow God to bring Healing to your Heart, replacing pain, hurt, rejection and brokenness with Love, Joy and Peace. May Kindness, Goodness, and Gentleness replace un-forgiveness, strife, jealousy, slander and gossip with family, friends, and co-workers. 

I pray that your Godly Desires and God given Talents and Gifts come to fruition, fully realized and multiplied. May you have more than enough and you become a blessing to others. 

This is your year. You are blessed because you belong to the King. God bless us all and Thank You God for who You are and all that You do for us. Amen

God's Plan for You

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

It's amazing that God actually has a plan for your life that is far greater than you can imagine. Unfortunately, this existence we have on earth has us so preoccupied with the demands of life that most of us give little thought to what it will mean to be completely sanctified.

Sanctification: Three-stage Process

At the moment of salvation, God sets us apart for Himself. Then throughout the rest of our earthly life, He works to transform us into the image of His Son. One day, however, there will be a glorious culmination to our sanctification. Presently, we all struggle with sin, but when we die, our spirits and souls will ascend to heaven and be completely sinless. Then we'll see our Savior face to face and experience unimaginable joy. No longer will we struggle with the pride of life or the lusts of the flesh and the eyes (1 John 2:16).

Not the Final Step

Some day in the future, Jesus will descend from heaven, bringing with Him the souls of those who have died in Christ. They will be united with their resurrected bodies, and believers who are still alive on the earth will be changed (1 Thess. 4:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54). Then sanctification will be complete: spirit, soul, and body.

Not just a Story

This is not a fairy tale, but the believer appointed destiny. God Himself promises to bring it to pass. We'll walk in His presence, spotless and without blame, for all eternity. Knowing this, how will you live today? The promise of salvation doesn’t mean to just give us hope, but to spur us on to holy living.

God Works Within Us

Ephesians 3:20-21

Take these words in slowly and let them sink into your understanding: “able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (v. 20). What an amazing description of God’s ability to work within us.

Yet so often our focus is mainly on what we want Him to do around us: If He would change this situation or fix that person or problem, only then my life would be better. But God invites us to think and ask bigger because He wants to change the heart. 

The Holy Spirit has more than enough power to transform lives from the inside out, but working change within is usually a slow process. Spiritual fruit takes time to grow and mature. That’s why we need patience and faith to believe He is working even when we don’t see the results right away. God is never in a hurry and will never give up on us.

The Lord has a purpose for your life, and He is constantly working to achieve it. Although He has an individualized plan for each one of His children, He also has an overarching goal to conform every believer to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish this, He may have to bring us through some struggles and heartaches. It might make no sense to us, but God knows exactly what He’s doing.

What would you like to see the Lord do within you? As you read the Bible, look for qualities that God considers precious, and ask Him to work them out in your life. Then rely on His wonderful promise to do even more than you have asked or imagined.

Defeating the Devil's Strategies

John 21:15-19

All of us make tracks through the valley of failure. Then the key question is, what we will do next? Sadly, many believers who stumble give up a vibrant kingdom-serving life for a defeated existence. But failure can also be a chance for a new beginning of living in Christ's strength.

In pride, Peter thought his faith was the strongest of all the disciples' and swore that even if the others left Jesus, he never would (Mark 14:29). Yet when the time of testing came, he denied even knowing Christ--and did so three times (Matt. 26:69-75). Satan hoped the disciple would be so wounded by his own disloyalty that his faith would be undermined by shame, condemnation, and despair.

Likewise, when the Enemy sifts believers today, his goal is for us to become shelved and ineffective for God's kingdom. That's why he goes after our strengths, especially the areas in which we proudly consider ourselves invincible. But if we're willing, the Lord can use our failures to do spiritual housecleaning, as He did in Peter's life. After the resurrection, Jesus met with the disciple personally and restored him, preparing him to become a great leader in the early church. He made it clear that Peter's potential to serve was defined, not by failure, but by his unwavering love for Christ.

Peter laid down his pride, received the healing Jesus offered, and put on courage with the Holy Spirit's help. He then risked his life fearlessly to further the gospel, and many came to Christ through his example. Failure was the catalyst that grew in him a stronger, more authentic faith.

Accepting God's Love

1 John 4:7-12

Many people simply can't believe that the Lord loves them. Others believe that He loves them, but only when they are pleasing Him in some way. Why is it so hard for us to accept His unconditional love?

One reason is that we have a hard time loving others without condition. We might say the words "I love you" to our spouse, children, friends, co-workers, or fellow believers but all too often are calculating in our mind whether or not they've lived up to our standard. We sometimes excuse ourselves from loving certain people because their behavior upsets or annoys us. The fact that we place restrictions on extending favor causes us to wrongly assume that the Lord does likewise.

Another reason is poor self-image. Considering ourselves unworthy, we refuse to accept God's love. None of us are worthy of the heavenly Father's goodness and mercy so you can let go of that excuse once and for all. We're not coming to Him based on our worth. Rather, we're coming to Him based on His grace, and our position is secure in Christ. To put yourself down as "beneath His grace" is to trample on His loving, generous gift. God arranged an awesome divine way for us to be reconciled to Him, and His greatest desire is for relationship with each of us.

If you feel unloved or struggle to accept yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of our heavenly Father's love for you and to sink it deep into your heart. Receive the truth that He reveals. It will be a completely different story about your value as an individual.

Jesus the Source of Peace

Colossians 1:15-20

Before we knew Jesus Christ, our life was full of godlessness and wickedness—we had self-seeking ways and stubborn, unrepentant hearts (Romans 1:18; 2:5, 8). Like our strife-filled world, we clamored for peace and tried to find it, but our efforts failed.

When we came to faith in the Savior, all of that changed. We were rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into Christ’s kingdom (Col 1:13). Every one of our sins—past, present, and future—was forgiven. Divine justice was satisfied by Christ’s sacrifice, and God’s wrath upon us was removed. We became a new creation, washed clean by Jesus’ blood (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Now that sin’s power over us has been broken, we can live in accord with God. He sent His Holy Spirit to be our personal guide in this new life, helping each of us experience Christ’s peace (Rom. 8:6). We also can look forward to an eternity spent in heaven, where righteousness, tranquility, and joy abound (Romans 14:17).

The story of the prodigal son’s return is a picture of our reconciliation with the Lord (Luke 15:11-24). The son had chosen to leave his father, living instead to please himself. Repentant, he eventually returned home; his father joyfully greeted him and forgave him, and there was harmony between them. God has done all this for us.

Our unity with the heavenly Father came at a great price—the sacrifice of His only Son. Christ gave His life for us so that we could be reconciled to God (Col. 1:20). Christian lives are to testify that Jesus is the source of our peace.