Grace for your spirit November 12, 2012

Grace for your spirit

Your lamb shall be a unblemished male a year old. you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.  You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel. is to kill it at midnight.  Exodus  12:5-6

On the very first Passover celebration in Egypt, the blood on the doorposts came from a special sacrificed sheep or goat. The sacrifice was brought into the house for five days and then killed.  Just as soon as the family got to love this cute animal they had to watch it die. It was sad, but the blood saved their lives.  This became a type of Christ who was to come.  When we come to know Christ and love Him, then we must see Him as our crucified Savior.  Although it is sad to see such a loved one die, the blood saves us from our sins as God's wrath passes over us.   Before we celebrate our Passover, the Lord's Supper next Sunday, let's bring Christ in our houses and hearts as first.

Grace for your spirit November 9, 2012

Grace for your spirit

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.  Joshua 1:8

Most everyone wants to be prosperous and successful.  It would be nice if we could just set back and let the blessing flow over us, but it doesn't work that way.  Joshua advised the people that the wisdom and knowledge paving the road to success was found in God's book.  We can chart the success and failures of God's people by their attention to the book of law.  In the reign of King Josiah, they found the lost book of law, and no one could figure out what it was.  When it was identified, it led them to repentance. Is righteousness and success escaping us?  Let's find our map to victory in God's word, and put it to good use day and night.

Grace for your spirit November 8, 2012

Grace for your spirit

To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.  Ephesians 3:8

Paul had been standing on the riches of God's blessings all along, but he didn't know it until he knew Jesus.  Then those unfathomable riches were his to use and proclaim.  Something like Jed Clampitt of the Beverly Hillbillies.  "And then one day he was shootin' at some food and up through the ground came some bubblin' crude." Jed had been a millionaire all along, but he couldn't use it until he knew it and found it.  Whether are standing on the promises or sleeping on the premises, God's grace is sufficient to make those riches useful to all of us.  When we get to know Jesus, we will get to know His riches.

Grace for your spirit November 7, 2012

Grace for your spirit

Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge. But he who hates reproof is stupid.  Proverbs 12:1

This is not a difficult concept to understand.  In order to learn most things, one must discipline their thoughts and make time to focus on the challenge.  We also must be willing to take correction or we won't learn anything.  With no discipline and the inability to take correction all knowledge will escape us.  Somebody was asked. "Did you go to school, stupid?"  He responded, "Yes and I came out the same way."  As Christians, it is time for us to grow up and wake up.  We need discipline, knowledge and reproof to do our Father's will.

Grace for your spirit November 6, 2012

Grace for your spirit

For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God that is in you by the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline  

I Timothy 1:6-7

We all face big challenges that come with lots of discouragement and very little help.  It is easy to become discouraged, and that is why we need to be reminded of the weapons we have to stay in the battle.  We all have many gifts from God that are extremely powerful if we will activate them in our lives.  At the times when we "hit the wall", and are tempted to quit, let's remember that God has given us a spirit of power, love, and discipline, and greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. May those gifts of faith, spirit, and grace, rekindle the fire within us.

Grace for your spirit November 5, 2012

Grace for your spirit

As a gold ring in a swine's snout, so is a beautiful woman without discretion.  Proverbs 11:22

We would wonder about someone telling us that they loved the gold ring, but didn't notice the pig.  Gold can be like that.  Lots of beautiful people can be that way too.  We notice the beauty but fail to notice the person cannot make decisions about what is right and wrong.  The discretion will be needed in life long after the beauty fades.  May we have the wisdom to look past the "bling", and see the qualities of inner beauty.

Grace for your spirit November 2, 2012

Grace for your spirit

The seed that fell among the thorns, these are the ones that have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  Luke 8:14

Put a potato in a cars exhaust pipe, the engine dies.  Take in food, put none out, the constipated body will die.Take in worries fears, and anger and, don't let it go, the spirit will die.  Many a spiritual life has been choked to death with worries about the things in this world and have never brought forth fruit nor come to maturity.  We cannot avoid some worry, some fear, or some anger, but we must find the solution before it chokes us off.  May I suggest the antidote might be faith, hope, and love.  For worry, faith.  for fear, hope.  for anger, love.  As the old song went, "You gotta have faith, hope, and charity. That's the way to live successfully.  How do I know?  The Bible tells me so."