Whatever You Do

Are you troubled by things you’ve done, by what you’ve said to people, or by what people have said to you? Are your words typically supportive, or do you find yourself often critical and hostile? 

Remember Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him.” 

When you speak or act in a way that you know in your heart to be wrong, you pay for it with your emotions. You chip away at your own self respect. One of the most important principles that you can apply to your life is that your mental health is in your control. You are the one who must choose how you respond to individuals and situations in your life that are less than perfect. You might say, "If only this person would change, then all these wonderfully warm friendly qualities would be released in me." Not true. Nobody can cause you to be angry, stubborn, immovable, inflexible, and easily irritable. Your behavior is determined by your spirit, and your spirit involves you and God. It’s a unique relationship. It has nothing to do with anyone else.

Paul said in Romans 13:1, 2: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power resists the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation.”

The NIV puts it in a gentler way – “will bring judgment on themselves.” You see, your behavior makes a difference to you.

Don’t allow yourself to drift away from allowing the Lord to fill your heart with His Spirit day by day. Nobody can stop you from calling on God to fill you with His love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, and patience. Do what you’re doing and saying in His Name, as though He was right there with you. Let Him help you feel the relief of walking through life with a thankful spirit.

Again in Philippians 2:2-4 Paul tells us to, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than themselves."

Becoming pre-occupied with the negative qualities of anyone or anything in your life causes you to lose sight of good things. Jesus laid down His life for you. He has chosen to put the emphasis on your spiritual life. He has chosen to give you of His Spirit, and to make your burden light. He gives you the ability to honor him in all that you do and say.

Destiny

Have you fulfilled your destiny? If not, why not?

-Did you start on your way to fulfilling your destiny only to be derailed by letting other life's events get in the way?

-Did you make some initial first steps only to find roadblocks in your way that convinced you to give up?

-If you fulfilled some aspects of your destiny, did you find that you had limited success, and, therefore gave in to a negative view that you weren't meant to succeed?

Although I didn't succeed at the level I wanted or desired as a pastor, at least I lived my destiny by turning it into a reality. If I had never turned my destiny into action, I would have always wondered - what if? Was I then a failure because I did not accomplish all my goals? No, I wasn't. Did I have the financial success I'd hoped for - no. But, there were valuable lessons to be learned. After all, how many successful pastors achieve all their personal goals? Probably not many. Failures are our greatest teacher as long as our experiences are viewed as lessons, and those lessons are internalized to provide fruits for greater achievements later. 

It may take a few more attempts, or many attempts but success is only achieved once your destiny is put into action. Failures are the launching pad for smarter choices, or better action plans in future endeavors. Will success come at the next church, or the next one after that, or will you be content placing your destiny in God's hands and stay where He has put you? Who is to say but God. The important point here is that success only comes by turning your destiny into reality and realizing that obstacles are only stepping-stones to your final success. I did what I was destined to do, but only through believing that God could use me. Learn valuable lessons from your failures; turn your destiny into action plans, and don't let your destiny only be a dream!

Throwing Stones

John 8:6-8 “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”

A few years ago I got an email letting me know a mutual acquaintance had died. I felt really bad that day even though I hadn't seen him in years. He wasn't a church attender even though I invited him to church several times when I pastored in the area.

I tried to talk to him about Jesus on several occasions, but realized soon that he didn’t want to talk about religion or God. So I would let him know he was always welcome at church and I would pray for him when he would ask on the occasions I would see him.

One day he opened up and told me this story. A very sad story of how a church had harshly condemned his family when he was a child over something really stupid. I could see and hear how this condemnation and shunning affected him even after many years. It was bad enough that he lost his faith in God and the church.

After I got the news of his death, I thought about the power of the spoken word and deed. You can never take them back. They are like feathers floating through the air and are not retrievable. They cause damage and pain that never goes away. I have another close friend who is out of church today and divorced from his companion because of a family in his church that got a vendetta against him. It was their lies and harsh treatment that drove a wedge between him and God and literally caused his marriage to collapse.

Even though we have all experienced the pain of being condemned at various times in our lives, let’s focus today on what we have done to others. Is there someone you have judged, harshly condemned or shunned? Pray that the Lord will give you a chance to show His love to them and to ask forgiveness for harsh words and deeds. Pray for their restoration and the restoration of thousands like them in our world today. Don't throw any more stones because one day they just might come back at you!

Revealed

The book of Acts is filled with excitement! Miracles happen in every chapter. We in Pentecost have stood on this book for years as the basis of our faith. The primary characteristic of this book is that the people refused to limit God. Once He displayed His power and poured it upon them they never took it for granted.

I have observed in recent years that instead of taking advantage of the power that God has given us through the Holy Ghost, we have taken Him for granted. We have limited God in various ways because of tradition or habit and often squandered His desire to help us in times we need it the most. In other words, if God doesn't do it as we think He should, it isn't God. On that note, look at the ways God revealed Himself throughout the Word: 

-God spoke to His followers through angels.

Acts 8:26 "An angel of the Lord said to Philip..."

Acts 10:2 "An angel of the Lord came to him and said..."

Acts 12:7“The angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up ‘Hurry! Get dressed and put on your sandals.'"

-God spoke to His followers through visions.
  
Acts 9:10 “The Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision.”

-God spoke to His followers through His Holy Spirit.

Acts 13:2 “During this time the Holy Spirit said to them. ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to do a special work for which I have chosen for them.’”

-The Lord spoke to His followers directly.

Acts 23:11“The next night the Lord came and stood by Paul. He said, ‘Be brave!’”

Reflect on these verses and let God open your eyes to the fact that He did not (and does not) use just one or two ways to speak to His followers. The answer was, “Don’t limit God to your incomplete knowledge of Him.” 

We have that tendency to do that, don’t we? Pray that in this New Year God will let you experience in more than one way the power of His glory.

Two Voices

We have two natures: the spiritual and the sinful. The voice we hear from the spiritual nature comes from Jesus Christ. The voice we hear from our fleshly nature comes from the enemy according to Galatians 5:16,17. The spiritual nature and the sinful nature are always in conflict with each other.

What then, can we do to replace the negative thoughts that come to our mind from our sinful nature? We can switch to thoughts of God’s truths about ourselves from our spiritual side.

If you are a Christian:

-John 1:12 says You are a child of the King, not a worthless nobody.

-Colossians 2:10 says You are complete in Him, not lacking anything.

-Romans 8:1, 2 says You are forever free from condemnation. You are not guilty.

-Romans 8:35 says you are loved forever, not unlovable.

-Philippians 4:13 says You can do all things through Christ. You are not weak.

-2 Timothy 1:7 says You have been given a spirit of power, not a spirit of fear.

Memorize these Bible verses or write them down on a card and put it in your Bible. Have them close by so you can read them when the negative nature attacks your mind. Focus on and believe what God says about you! Hear the right voice and press on.

A Person Of Worth

Words that we hear in our home can build or tear down our worth as a person.  The Bible speaks of words of life and death in Prov.18:21 where it says,”Death and life are in the power of the tongue..." As we hear words of affirmation and encouragement they are words of life to us while words of criticism and belittling are words of death.  Other people add to the collection of life-giving or death words in a person’s heart.  Over time a person begins to see themselves in the light of these words. Is this the final word or is there hope that one can develop a sense of worth as a person?

If we look in the Scriptures we see that God never meant it to be this way. He speaks words of life into the heart of every person.  We read in Genesis that when God completed the creation of the world He made man in his likeness or image.  This likeness gave man and later also the woman He made the capacity to think, to make decisions, to know right from wrong, to be creative and to have the ability to communicate and have a personal relationship.  Not only did God put this potential in the heart of man and woman He also gave them an assignment to use these abilities.  They were told to rule over the things He had created and give to each a name. Herein lies the potential to organize, care,  and to be in charge.

Although the assignment to be fruitful is linked to increasing in number  it could also indicate creativity in other areas.  Fruitfulness can also speak of the outcome of our labor, of putting our God given creativity to work in a job, a home based business, our homes or in areas where God has given us a creative interest which every person possesses who is created in the image of God.  Fruit speaks of a beautiful outcome of our labors.
One of the most beautiful aspects of the creation of man is God seeing the need for man to be in a relationship, to have a companion.  God places this need and capacity into the heart of each person.  Each has the potential to be a friend, a companion, a helper or a person of influence.

This is what God had in mind when he created you.  He created you in his image so that you could think, make choices, use your creativity, build relationships, faithfully work at the tasks in your hand and be a person of influence in the lives of others. But that’s not all.  This was only the beginning.  In Psalms 139 he says we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and describes the creation of each person with words like “knit together” and “woven together” and “ordaining our days” all of  which require a plan by a great creator.  God had a plan for each of our lives and put together each person with abilities, personality and potential.

But the greatest evidence of our worth is that he loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us when we were sinners and totally unlovable.  We were worth it to him.  But there’s more to that as well.  When we believe that Jesus died for us and we accept his forgiveness we become his child.  A son and daughter of the King of Kings.  As we live in that relationship with him we begin to reflect his godly character and we produce the fruit of the Spirit named in  Galatians 5:22-23 as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The beauty of this fruit in our lives makes each of us a person of impact and influence.

No matter what “words of death” others have spoken about you God’s view of you rises above those words and he speaks “words of life” into your heart today.   He says, “I created you in my image, I gave you abilities to rule, organize, manage your area of life, I gave you a creativity that if followed will bring you joy, I made you to be a companion or friend to someone, to be a person of influence, you are precious to me, I loved you so much that I gave my son to die for you and now I want you to be my representative to share this love with others on earth. ”

God made you a person of worth.  He decided when he planned your life what abilities he would give to you.  We all have varying amounts of ability to organize, lead, create or influence but we have the choice as to what we want to do with that which God has entrusted to us.  God also gives us opportunities where we can use these abilities.  The fruitfulness depends on how we care for, cultivate and use each of these abilities which in turn results in the fruitfulness of influencing the lives of the people God has placed in our world whether they be children, spouses, employees, friends or neighbors.  You are special to God and he wants to use you to speak “words of life” into the lives of those around you.

A New Thing

Isaiah 43:18, 19 LAB “(What I have done in the past) is nothing compared to what I’m going to do! I’m going to do a brand new thing.”

What goes out of style will come back again. When we left Union almost 7 years ago, I threw away boxes and boxes of old phonograph records. CD's and MP3's were the rage of the day and record players were obsolete. I should have known what goes around comes around. Now old 33's are the rage and record players and turntables are making a comeback. Who would have thought?

As you contemplate the freshness of a new year, you’re tempted to quickly rejoice over God’s words to Israel. Who wouldn't want to be part of God’s “brand new thing”? You get excited as you pray for and anticipate a new work of God in your life and in the world in 2017.

Yet anyone who has ever worn beautiful new shoes may wish to think carefully about the possible consequences of new things. The shoes looked so good when you tried them on, and you even made sure they were the right size, but walking all day in that new purchase frequently gives us second thoughts. And all of us who start a new diet in the new year know that discouragement frequently settles in around the third day!

It's right to ask for God’s new things in the new year, but are you ready for the sacrifices that may accompany the blessing? Does commitment accompany the request? The new thing that God began in the life of the Apostle Paul on the Damascus road would take him into hostile cities, over stormy seas and through many prison cells. He learned to say “press on” long after the newness had worn off.

If you're ready for God to do a new thing in your life in 2017, then expect sacrifice to get you there. The new will wear off in just a short time. That's why so many young Christians waver in their faith because they don't expect to deal with some of the stuff they face. You may be the same in your thinking that the New Year is going to change things in your life for the better. It might, but it also might not. Receive the new thing from God, but remember the cost in keeping it new. That's something you never want to forget.