Blessed Is The Man Psalms 1:2

1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.



David describes the man who is blessed as one whose "delight is in the law of the Lord." We all would like to have that kind of love for the scriptures but most of cannot say that our delight is in the Law of the Lord. As someone one time put it, everything that we want to do in our lives always seems to be illegal, immoral or fattening! When it comes to the scripture, our wants do not usually line up with what the Bible tells us we ought to do!

How can our "delight be in the Law of the Lord"? The Law of the Lord is the Word of God. So, as we learn to meditate on the Word day and night, it becomes our delight and our natural tendency to surrender to temptation is curbed. Remember, one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit is to teach us the scriptures and to help us remember them as we need particular scriptures at various times in our lives. As temptation comes, for instance, God's Word becomes a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path so that we might not sin against God. The more time we spend in the Word and on our knees, the stronger we become and the less sin has hold on our lives.

We all know that this is God's way for our lives but most of us still have a long way to go in getting there. How can our delight be in the Law of the Lord? Well, John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word! So we could read "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Lord and in Him does he meditate both day and night!" This is why faith is so important to life! Jesus is life. He is the One who gives us life. He is the One who gives life to us more abundantly. So, as we learn to walk with Him and talk with Him, we start to do things His way, which allows Him to give us life as He created it to be! As we do things His way and He gets to do the things that He wants to do for us, we start to learn that He is indeed everything that He says He is and that He will do everything that He says He will do! As we learn to walk in faith, God is able to bless us in incredible ways and our lives are blessed and we become a blessing to others around us as well as to God.

Meditating on the Lord both day and night is what we call having a personal relationship with the Lord! So, once again David could have written, "blessed is the man who has a personal relationship with the Lord." When we learn that God's purpose behind the scriptures is for our benefit and for our blessing, a relationship with Him does become more important to us! As we learn to walk with Him and He is able to do the things that He has planned to do for us from the foundation of the world, then our joy starts to well up on the inside and our cup starts to run over! Things that once bothered us now are hardly a concern. Despair and disappointment and defeat disappear. Our life is good. Our life is meaningful. Our life starts to touch the lives of others. How much more blessed could we be?

Ask God to help you meditate on His Word both day and night. Ask the Lord to help you learn to talk with Him. Ask God to give you the power you need so that you might not fall to temptation so that He might be able to do for you as He so much wants to do. Ask God to give you the strength to do the things that He would have you do so that your life might be its absolute best so that you might be blessed and that you might be a blessing to Him and to those around you! Life does not get any better than that!

Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Lord and on Him does he meditate both day and night!

Joy in My Heart Ezra 6:22

And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy for the Lord had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the House of God, the God of Israel.



Israel has been in held in captivity in Babylon for several years. They have been allowed to return to Jerusalem and under the leadership of Zerubbabel, they were allowed to begin building a Temple in Jerusalem as a permanent place to worship God. All through this book, we will see a common theme, which is the power of God at work in human life. For only did the king allow the children of Israel to return to Jerusalem and build their Temple, the king ordered gifts to be given from the treasury to build and decorate the Temple.

Darius who ruled the province also ordered taxes to be collected to help build the Temple. In fact, there were three foreign leaders who ordered assistance to build the Temple. When the Temple was finished, the people rejoiced and they dedicated the Temple to God and joy filled their hearts. The Lord, the Bible tells us, made them joyful.

Joy comes from the Lord. The world can make us happy but joy comes from the Lord. The people celebrated their freedom and they came together to worship God because of all that He had done for them. They watched as God "turned the heart of Assyria" and he let the people go free and then God touched the hearts of not one but three other kings and they financed the building of the Temple!

God can accomplish what He wants to accomplish and He does not need our help in doing it! What God does want is for us to look to Him and allow him to be God in our lives. The people had lived in captivity and they began to cry out to God for forgiveness and for His deliverance and God said, "Ok; I will deliver you" and that is what He did. He gave Zerubbabel the vision to build a temple and He gave him the manpower and the finances to do what He wanted done.

God will do the same thing in our day today if we will just look to Him and then do what He tells us He wants us to do. God will deliver us from our oppressors and He will build our lives and He will also build His church! God has the recourses to do anything that He wants to do and we need to open our hearts to Him and allow Him to do what He wants to do in our lives. These people let God prove that He is able to do more than they could imagine and they celebrated all that He had done for them and God gave them joy in their hearts.

If you and I will let Him be God in our lives today, He will turn the hearts of those that oppose us and we may well be surprised and the provisions that God has in store for us as well! One thin is sure, if you and I will just walk with God, He will put His joy in our hearts and that will be worth celebrating!

Keeping My Traditions Mark 7:9

Full well you reject the commandments of God that you may keep your own traditions.




The scribes and Pharisees watched everything that Jesus and His disciples did. They looked for anything to find fault in them. One day, they saw the disciples eat bread without first washing their hands and they were quick to take offense and they came to Jesus and asked Him, "Why would You allow Your disciples to not keep the tradition of the elders in such a manner as this?" Jesus' reply was, "full well you reject the commandments of God to keep your own traditions."

I wonder how many traditions that we have formed through the years that we too hold onto with so much conviction? It is so easy to set the Word of God aside and fix for ourselves certain things that we can hold onto and use as gauges to determine our degree of faithfulness to the Lord and pay very little attention to the rest of God's Word. There are a couple of problems with this event that point out where the fault really was.

First of all, anytime we look to find fault in others, we are failing to keep God's commandments. The pious Jews saw the disciples eat bread without first washing their hands. They would never have done such a thing, in fact, they would have made a public effort to make sure that everyone saw them wash first. They wanted everyone to know that they were careful to keep the law. God's commandments are designed to keep us n check and not as a tool to keep others in check. We are not to use His Word to judge and find fault with others. Before we begin to take the splinter out of our brother's eye, we need to get the log out of our own eye first.

The second indication that stands out is the lack of love in this passage. When our traditions are challenged, it is so easy to get defensive and to hold those traditions up and make an issue of them. Any time we find ourselves challenged, we need to make sure that our response it tempered with love for the other person. We may not like what they are saying or doing, but we must always remember to love them first. When we fail to do that, we fail to keep God's commandments ourselves and we are as guilty as the people that are challenging our position with respect to the scriptures; especially when we are the ones pointing out the offense!

Anytime we begin to find fault with others, we need to challenge ourselves to first make sure that we follow God's Word and keep His commandments. We need to make sure that our priorities are in the right place and our relationship with the Lord is where it ought to be as He would have it be. When I do that, I find out that there is always more than enough room for improvement in my own life and the need for me to straighten someone else out kind of fades into the background! It is amazing how the Holy Spirit can do His job when I live my life before others the way that God would have me live it!

When the temptation comes to criticize someone else, pray. When the temptation comes to get angry, pray. When the temptation comes in any form, pray! What a blessing prayer is indeed!

Lord, Shall I Go? II Samuel 5 19

David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up against the Philistines? "Will you deliver them into my hand?" And the Lord said to David, "Go up for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand."



Here is a very important example for all of us to remember and follow. Saul has died. David has been anointed king over all of Israel. News of his rise to the throne came to the Philistines, who David had lived among while he fled from the threats that Saul had made against his life. David and his army even fought beside the king of the Philistines at various times. The army of the Philistines came and camped in the Valley of Rephaim and prepared to do battle with Israel.


David knew that his rise to the throne was God's doing. He knew that the reason he was alive to become king was because God had delivered him from his adversaries. David shared Paul's confidence in God, 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." (Romans 8)

So, when news came to David that the Philistines were camped near and were preparing to come against Israel, David asked the Lord for guidance. David knew the Philistine army. He knew their weaknesses and he knew their strengths. I am sure that he had a plan in his mind as to how he would defend himself and his army as well as the nation of Israel against them. However, David knew that God had a plan! He knew that there may have been panic in the camp of the Israelites, but there was no panic in heaven for God had a plan. David wanted to know what God's plan and instruction was and he went to God in prayer for God's instruction.

You and I have the same opportunity today to go to God for His plan for our lives. God wants to defeat our enemies and deliver us from our adversities. He wants us to look to Him for His instruction and His direction. God does not want us going out into the world and tackling things on our own. He wants us to wait on Him and let Him take care of the circumstances and situations that we face. If we will just do as David did and look to the Lord and wait for His instruction, we too will find that God is more than able to deliver us from all of the adversity that we will ever face.

As you look to tomorrow, ask the Lord, "Where shall I go?" Wait for His answer! You will be glad you did.

Be Reconciled to God Romans 5:10

For if when we were enemies (of God), we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.




In II Corinthians 5:19 we read that, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." Nowhere is there ever the need for God to be reconciled to man; it is always God doing the reconciling and it is always man being reconciled to God. What is reconciliation? To be reconciled is to be accepted after an offense has been committed. Reconciliation is more than forgiveness. For it is possible to be forgiven and not accepted.

God has chosen to accept us in light of the fact that we are sinners and as sinners we are enemies of God. Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He willingly laid down His life to pay the penalty for the sin of the men that drove the nails into His hands and feet; He willingly gave His life for the crowd that stood by and watched Him as He hung and the cross and as they ridiculed Him and spat on Him. He willingly gave His life on that cross for you and me in our sin and rebellion against Him so that we could be reconciled to God by the blood that He shed at Calvary's cross.

God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto Himself. In Jesus, God is able to make us acceptable in His sight. He is able to forgive our sin because the penalty for our sin has already been paid. As God would see it, there is no reason whatsoever that anyone perish but that all would come unto repentance. The price has been paid for the sins of all men. The only thing that remains is our being reconciled to God through the blood that was shed on the cross.

If we are reconciled to God by His death on the cross, then we who are reconciled will be saved by His life through the resurrection. Salvation begins and ends with God. Thee is no other name under heaven whereby men may be saved. No one can come to the Father but By the Lord Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit that draws him and it is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sin and our need for Him as we take the Word of God we listen to and we read its Words.

God is reconciling the world unto Himself and we can find comfort and assurance in those Words because God's Word tells us because He lives we too can live also! We need to make sure that we
Hear His Word and then heed that Word so that our faith will take root and allow the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus make us acceptable in God's sight. There is no greater gift that we can have than to be forgiven and then accepted by our Heavenly Father because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Boldness and Confidence Ephesians 3:12

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by our faith in Him.



Paul's desire was that the church would come to know the unsearchable riches of Christ and the manifold wisdom of God, which God had purposed in His heart before the foundation of the world. It was for this purpose that Jesus came in to this world and went to the cross. This knowledge would give the church holy boldness to come before the Lord and to seek access with confidence that the Lord would hear our prayer and He would respond to our prayer. This confidence would not rest in what we could do for ourselves but rather would rest in what Jesus could and would do for us.

You see there is a big difference in trusting in what Jesus "can" do for us and trusting in what He "will" do for us. I know a lot of people who believe that God can take care of the circumstances and situations that they find themselves in but they have a difficult time turning loose of those situations and trusting Him to do something for them. Paul assures us that we can come to God in boldness and complete confidence by our faith in the Lord Jesus.

The key to the power of the gospel is found in that last phrase, "by our faith in Him." Our faith in the Lord is the key to experiencing real victory in our lives. This faith is the result of our coming to understanding the wisdom of God that is revealed in the Word of God and demonstrated in the life of the Lord Himself. As you and I look to the Word of God and we begin to rest on the promises that are contained there, we come to know that we can trust God and our faith is then strengthened and our resolve should be strengthened to walk even closer to the Lord.

As you and I trust God and we walk with Him in the light of His Word and not according to the desires of our own heart and what seems right in our own minds, our boldness increases and our confidence that God is in control and He will hear our prayer and He will answer that prayer and He will do what is best for us according to His manifold wisdom as He leads us from where we are to the place that He so much wants us to be.

God is a great God and the purpose of His heart is to be our God and that means that He will do anything heavenly possible to do for us what only He can do. He wants us to learn that we can trust Him and that we can come to Him in complete confidence and absolute assurance that He will do all that He can do for our benefit and our blessing.

It Is Well Deuteronomy 4:39

"Therefore, know this day and consider it in your heart that the Lord Himself is God in heaven there is no other. You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments that it may be well with you and your children."



Moses has given to the children of Israel God's Law for them to follow and to observe. God has given them the Law for a very special reason. His Law carries with it the promise of His presence, which is a promise of His provisions and His protection as well as His faithfulness to keep His promises to past generations. Over and over Moses reminded the children of Israel how God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He then reminded them of them of how God took them out of the land of Egypt and how He saved them from the fearful hand of Pharaoh.

He reminded them how God had fed them in the wilderness and how He gave them water to drink every day for some 40 years. He reminded them of their disobedience when they listened to the report of the spies. The spies came back with a report that the land was as God said it would be, flowing with milk and honey. However, they told the people that the land was well fortified and there were giants in the land and it would not be wise to go in. The people failed to trust God and as result the people to whom Moses was speaking, lost their parents in the wilderness.

This generation needed to hear the Word of the Lord and they needed to heed that Word. If they did, God wanted them to know that it would be will with them and with their children. Ironically, when the people listened to the report of the spies, their complaint was that their children had been born in the wilderness to die there. Now God is reinforcing the fact that they as children were safe in the arms of the Lord and that their children would be more than safe as well. They would all be blessed if they honored God's Word and followed Him in His statutes and His Word.

We need to hear God's Word today and we need to heed it as well for it will be well for our children and us as well. As we surrender our wills to His will, He is then able to do what He so much wants to do in our lives. Nothing has changed with God's plan and purpose to be our God! He wants to bless us and He wants to take care of our need and He will as we allow Him to do so. We allow God to be God in our lives when we allow His Word to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. When we make decisions on a day by day basis, we invite his provisions and His protection and his power into our lives and that makes it well with our children and us! It makes it well with the Lord as well!

Walk with God in prayer and let His promises bless and keep your life in Jesus' precious Name!

Only Believe I Thessalonians 2:13

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.



"The Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe." God's Word is more than true; it is the truth. You and I can take that truth and make it the foundation for our lives. The church at Thessalonica had done exactly that. This church did not just talk about the gospel; they practiced it. They took the Word of God and accepted it as such. Paul praised them for not accepting it as the words of men but as the truth. Truth is effective. Truth works wonders in our lives!

Jesus told new Jewish believers in John chapter 8, "If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." The Apostle Paul is saying pretty much the same thing again as he talks about the Word of God, "effectively working in you who believe."

The key to this precious promise is found in the last phrase, "you who believe." Here to believe is the same as the "abide" in Jesus' instruction. Belief dictates action. If I really believe something then my decisions will reflect that belief. We all believe something. We all have a basis for our decisions. The challenge that faces us all is what foundation are we going to build our lives upon?

The truth is when we build our lives on the truth of the Word of God, that truth works effectively in us. As we begin to base our decisions on the Word of God that Word begins to take have an impact on who we are and what we do. The Word of God is effective when it is practiced! It is not enough to just know the Word, we have to take hold of that Word and then let it take hold of us!

God wants your life to be its absolute best. He wants you to wake up with peace and joy in your heart. He wants you to prosper. He wants you to be "rich" as He blesses you and not necessarily as the world registers wealth. Big houses, expensive cars, designer clothes are nice and they have their place but a lot of people have made them their focus because the world says they are important. A lot of people have made those things the focus and the foundation of their lives and they have come up empty. A lot of folks are paying a very high cost for a lot of low living.

God wants us to make His Word the foundation of our lives and believe in Him so that He can effectively work in and through our lives as only He can do. Go back and look at the Old Testament and see how God provided for His people. See how He protected them and delivered them time and time again. He wants to do the same for you and me and promises to do so if we will just take His Word and take Him at His Word and only believe in Him as we abide in Him by letting His Word abide in us.

Walk With God Ezekiel 11:20

20"that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.



God has one desire; He wants you and me to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments and do them. A lot of folks know God's statutes but when it comes to doing them it is another story. It does not matter what we know if what we know does not matter when it comes to how we live our lives.

God has given us the Holy Spirit and He has given us life. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to know the provisions that He has in store for us. However, before God can do a lot that He wants to do for us, we have to walk in obedience to His will and way for our lives. God wants to fight our battles and He wants to provide for us but those blessings are waiting for us in special places. We have to be in those places to receive the goodness that God has planned for us.

If we are in the wrong place, it is no wonder that we do not receive all that God has planned for us. When we walk in God's judgments and His statutes, we become God's people and He promises that He will be our God. This is a great promise to us. It is a great privilege to become a child of God; it is even a greater privilege to know that God wants us to be part of Him and all that He is doing.

In all of God's creation, His focus is on us as individuals. He wants us to stand with Him so that He can stand for us. God's greatest joy is doing things for you and me as we allow Him to be God in our lives through our obedience to His statutes and His commandments. Life is really simple; walk with God and He promises that He will walk with us.

Fear and Discouragement Deut 1:21

Fear not neither be discouraged.



Moses is recounting the experiences of the children of Israel to them. They had come out of Egypt and the Lord brought them to the edge of the Promised Land and Moses told the people not to fear and not be discouraged for the Lord was ready to give them the land that He had promised them. Moses goes on to recount to them how they wanted to send spies into the land to see what the land was like. When the spies came back they brought with them some of the fruit in the land and a report that the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey. However, the land was occupied with strong men and well built cities and the advice of the spies was that they did not need to go in to take the land.

Moses told them that God was going to fight their battles and that they were failing to take God at His word and that was a dangerous thing to do. Of coarse we know the rest of the story. Joshua and Caleb came back with the spies and the said, "Lets do what God tells us to do." The people however did not listen to them nor did they listen to Moses and as a result they died in the wilderness and their children became the children of promise.

God is still telling us today, "Fear not and do not be discouraged." God wants to direct our lives and He wants to accomplish His purpose in and through our lives. God will accomplish His purpose; the real question is will we allow Him to do it in us or will we cause Him to go to someone else or another generation altogether.

The children of Israel feared that they would lose their lives if they tried to cross the Jordan and try to take the Promised Land. They feared that their lives would be in danger of they tried to fight against the enemies that already possessed the land. The people refused to go in and trust God and their greatest fear came true; they lost their lives in the wilderness.

The principle that I want us to think about today is simple; our greatest fear can become our destiny if we fail to overcome it. The only way to overcome fear is with faith and our faith is measured by our willingness to be obedient to do what God tells us to do. Every single aspect of our lives is controlled by the decisions that we make. We either choose to do things God's way or we do them our way. When we do things God's way, He is able to bless us. When we refuse to do things His way and we go our own way, we fall victim to the very thing that we fear the most.

Listen to Moses' admonition to the children of Israel, "Fear not and do not be discouraged." Fear and discouragement are the tools of the devil to rob you of the joy that God wants you to have. When fear and discouragement come on you, go to God in prayer and seek His guidance and His strength and make sure that you are obedient to His Word and see what God can do for you!

Now We Shall See Numbers 11:23

23And the LORD said to Moses, "Has the LORD's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not."



The children of Israel are in the wilderness. God has miraculously brought them out of Egypt. He has protected them from the strong arm of Pharaoh. He parted the waters of the Red Sea and they marched through the sea on dry land. They then watched as God closed the waters up and Pharaoh's army drowned in the sea and they would never see Pharaoh's army again.

The children of Israel experienced God's presence in the pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. They knew that God spoke to Moses and that He was going to take them to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. However, this journey was no leisurely walk in the park. The people got hungry and God gave them manna to eat. They got thirsty and God gave them water to drink.

Now, they were tired of the manna! They had learned to cook it in almost every conceivable way possible and they wanted something else to eat. This is all ok. God understands our desires. However, the people complained and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? 5"We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6"but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" "Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?"

Moses went to the Lord and began to whine himself! 11So Moses said to the LORD, "Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? 12"Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,' to the land which You swore to their fathers? 13"Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' 14"I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. 15"If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now-if I have found favor in Your sight-and do not let me see my wretchedness!"

God told Moses that He would give the children of Israel meat to eat. Listen to what God says to Moses, "Has the LORD's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not."

You and I need to remember that no matter how difficult the situation and circumstances that we face may be, God is able to handle it! There is never any panic in heaven, just a plan. God knows what He is going to do before a situation even comes up. His arm has not been shortened. You and I need to determine in our hearts and in our minds to remain faithful to His Word and His promises and watch and see as He does what He says He will do.

Practice Patience Hebrews 6:13

When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surly blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you." And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.



God keeps His promises but His timetable is very different from ours. We live in a fast paced society where we expect things to be done immediately. A funny line in "Runaway Bride" takes place as the bride steps on a Fed-Ex truck and someone asks the question, "Where is she going?" and the reply was, "Wherever it is, she will be there by 10:30 in the morning." God is not on our schedule and He is not concerned about impulses. He is concerned about strengthening our faith and our resolve to walk with Him no matter what.

God is not interesting in giving to us; He is interesting in growing us up. God made a promise to Abraham and because of that promise Abraham left his homeland and took off with God not knowing where it was that he was going or how long that journey would take. Abraham followed after God for 5 years and there was no son. He followed another 5 years and still there was no son. Another 10 years went by and Abraham had not been given a son. 25 years after he left his homeland as a 75 year-old man, God appeared to him again and said, "It is time for you to get your son."

My question is, was God faithful to his promise at 15 years? 20 years? It is easy to see that Abraham did not have his son and Abraham had done what God had asked him to do, plus some. He did sleep with Sarah's maid and she bore him a son as they tried to help God out. Was God faithful in His promises to Abraham? Sure He was!

When you and I face trying times in our lives, we have to hold onto God's promises for our lives and walk with Him knowing that those promises will be fulfilled. God has promised that He will never leave nor forsake us and He has promised that He will not let more come on us than we can handle. The storm may become pretty intense and it may seem as if you are going to be swept away and there are even times when that may be exactly what happens. However, our response has to be, "God is here with me and He will see me through this." For it is the practice of our patience that brings God's promises to us.

I am personally convinced that when we are tempted the most, the devil is trying to interrupt God's blessings in our lives. When temptation comes, we need to practice patience if we want to see God's salvation and His abundant blessings. Sometimes, it just takes a little longer for perfection to take shape. God knows exactly what we need and He knows exactly when we need it and He is never a day late or a dollar short! He is always right on time with His timetable!

Cleanse Ourselves II Corinthians 7:1

1Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.



God says in the last verse of chapter 6, "I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters." Therefore, Paul writes, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

What a promise we have from God. He told Abraham I will be Your God and you shall be the father of many nations. God is restating the same promise that He made to Abraham. In fact, the promise that He gives us in this passage is the fulfillment of His promise to Abraham. Because Abraham trusted God and walked with Him in faith, so can we today believe God and take Him at His Word and walk with Him.

Because God has given us this position of prominence in His family, we need to do our part. We need to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We need to take God at His Word and allow the Holy Spirit convict us of our sin and then cleanse us of that sin. Our part is to repent and turn to God for His redemptive work. God knows what we need and He will give us His grace through His mercy as we look to Him to cleanse us. We cannot cleanse ourselves. We have to look to God for that cleansing.

We have to look to the Word of God and the Spirit as we surrender our wills to His Will. We need to make His thoughts our thoughts and when we do our ways become His ways. Obedience is the key to that cleansing. Obedience to the Word stands in direct opposition to submission to the desires of the mind and the lust of the flesh. When our will lines up with His will, He is able to perfect His righteousness in us.

God's righteousness is what He looks for in our lives. God wants to see the effects of His provisions in our lives. He wants to see His glory reflected in our lives. When we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, God's righteousness fills that void and that is what others see as the look at our lives! When the rest of the world is able to see Jesus in us, then his glory is made full and He is able to reach out and touch others!
1Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Union or Unity Galatians 3:28

For as many of you as were baptized in to Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, neither is there make or female for all are one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.




"Heirs according to the promise" what a wonderful promise! This ought to be the primary goal of our lives for this is God's primary goal. The desire of God's heart is that you and I become heirs according to His promises. This meets our need to day as well as for all of eternity.

This promise removes all barriers that we have in our world today. The ethnic barriers come down for in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. God does not look at the color of our skin or the country where we were born for in Christ Jesus we are all one.

Not only are the ethnic barriers brought down, do are the socio-economic barriers brought down for there is neither "slave nor free" in Christ Jesus. Rich and poor alike are all one in the Lord. God does not look at the balance in our savings account when He looks to save us. God does not really care about the amount on the check that we write on Sunday; if He looks at all, He looks to see what the balance is in the account after the check is written, for the Bible tells us that God loves a cheerful giver! We are all mere paupers before God and all that we have belongs to Him anyway!

Not only are there no ethnic or socio-economic barriers, there are no gender barriers either; for there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus. God does not look at our gender when it comes to our salvation and our worth in His eyes. We are all His children and we are all infinitely valuable to Him no matter who we are or what we have accomplished, good or bad! There is no one who is so good that he does not need the Lord's mercy and His grace nor is there anyone who is so bad that God cannot save him.

We are all "one in Christ Jesus." Unity is a wonderful thing. Unity brings us together and it draws others to us. Unity gives us a sense of family. Unity is the product of love for one another. When we have unity and there are no barriers between us, we will have union. However there is a difference between unity and union. Union can exist without unity but unity cannot exist without union. Let me explain.

Union exists when two cats are tied together at the tail but it would be fair to say there would be little unity! We need to understand that the real goal of the Lord in our lives is not that we just come together, but that we come together in love for one another because God has first loved us and He has forgiven us. Because of what He has done for us, we can love and accept others as He sees them not as we see them. Let's strive to practice unity as opposed to union. There is a world out there that is dying and headed for an eternity in Hell because we who are in Christ Jesus are not willing to see others as Christ sees them. We need to change that and we need to do it today.

Remember God Isaiah 43:26

Put me in remembrance: let us plead together; declare thou that thou mayest be justified.



God is speaking to the children of Israel. He has chosen them and set them apart to bless from all the peoples of the world. In fact, that is why God established them as a nation in the first place. God tells them that they were created to "show forth God's praise." However, they did not call upon Him. They did not bring Him the first born of that which God had blessed them with. They did not give Him the sacrifices that He deserved. They refused to worship Him in honor of Who He was and all that He had done for them.

Instead, God told them "You have made Me to serve with your sin." As the children of Israel lived in their rejection and sin, God was made to serve them in their sin. One of the promises that God has given to us is that He will never leave nor forsake us. He is with us everywhere we go and with everything we do. He hears our every thought and He has to watch our every action. God knows what He has in store for us and He knows how our poor decisions are going to negatively effect our lives yet He still "serves us with our sin."

In verse 25 God gives the children of Israel another of His promises. "I, even I, am He who blots out your sin for My own sake, and I will not remember your sin." Do you know what God is trying to tell the children of Israel? He is not as concerned with what they have done in the past; God is concerned about what they are doing today and the direction their lives are headed tomorrow. He promises that He will forget their sin. God wants to be God in our lives. Yesterday is gone and our past is behind us. God wants us to learn from our mistakes and allow Him to take our today and make our tomorrow everything that He can possibly make it.

All we have to do is put Him in remembrance. How do we do that? We take His Word and make it a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path and hide its word in our heart that we might not sin against Him. When we take God at His Word and let His Word have an impact on the decisions that we make, our lives take a dramatic change for the better for God's promise to us is that we do this that we "may be justified."

There is no better place for us to be than to be justified before the Lord. If God serves us in our sin, imagine how He could serve us justified before Him! We owe God our all. All He asks from us is our best. When we give our best to Him, He gives His best to us and that makes our lives the best that they can possibly be! What a trade-off!

The Peace of God Romans 5:1

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.



The one thing that we want in this life is peace with God. God created us with this inner need for peace that He alone is the source. People work their fingers to the bone and sacrifice everything they have to find this peace but the truth is only God can satisfy this longing that burns in our hearts for Him. How do we have access to this peace that we so desperately need? We are to look to Jesus.

Jesus died for our sins. He died in our place so that we could live for Him. He was raised from the dead so that He could make us right with God. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that gives us our hope! It is Jesus' death, burial and resurrection that gives us our righteousness or right standing before Him. This righteousness is not our own, but is given to us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross and sealed for us in His resurrection. All of our efforts on our own to be righteous will end up in futility in the end because we cannot have this righteousness on our own. We must be "born again" as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3.
Once we have given our hearts to the Lord and we belong to Him because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary, we like Abraham have been justified by our faith in what Jesus did for us. Because we have been justified by faith, we will find peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace the world cannot give to us. We cannot find this peace in our jobs or our income or from the money in our bank accounts.

The only way we can have this peace is through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. This quality of life comes to us as we surrender the lust of the eyes and the desires of our heart to Him through faith in Him that begins in salvation and continues in our every day lives as we walk with Him and live for Him in obedience one decision at a time. As we surrender our hearts to Him, He is able to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and that my friend is the reason that God created you and me in the first place. He created you and me to be an outlet for His remarkable love and that is the source of this peace that we so desperately seek to have today!

An Advocate I John 2:1

We have an advocate with the Father.



Jesus Christ has done something for us that is almost inconceivable. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. He was raised from the dead so that He could sit at the right hand of His heavenly Father as an advocate for you and me before God. Jesus is able to do two things for us. First of all, He is able to plead on our behalf as Satan stands before God bringing inaccurate charges against us. If the charges are founded and we are guilty of those charges, Jesus is able to plead the blood on our behalf as well.

Jesus is our advocate before God's throne. There is nothing that comes before Him that He cannot take care of. Some would take this as an invitation to sin even more. Just because Jesus has the ability to forgive sin, it is not an invitation to sin more. To make that argument would be like trying to defend your actions and saying that, "the house had fire insurance so I set the house on fire." The fire insurance is there if you need it, but it is not a valid reason to set the house on fire. Just because Jesus is there to plead on our behalf so that God will forgive our sin, it is not a valid reason to continue in sin.

We have an advocate with the Lord and He is there for our benefit to plead on our behalf before the Father. However, we also have an advocate in the Holy Spirit as well. The Holy Spirit "ever lives to make intercession for us." (Hebrews 7:25) The Greek word for "Advocate" and "Comforter" are the same word, which means, "One called along side to help."

Jesus intercedes on our behalf in heaven while the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf in our hearts. As Jesus speaks to the Father for us, the Holy Spirit speaks to us leading us and guiding us in the way that God would have us go. So, with Jesus in heaven and the Holy Spirit in us, we have all the strength and help that we need to be all that God would have us be if we would just listen and do what God would have us do.

There is no better place to be in all the world than in the palm of God's hand as Jesus intercedes for us and the Holy Spirit intercedes with us so that God can do for us all that He wants to do in us and with us and for us! Glory to God! Amen!!!

Your Heart Will Follow Matthew 6:21

21"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.



Here is a very familiar passage of scripture for most of us. This comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus tells His disciples that they are not to be as concerned about earthly treasures because they can be destroyed from the inside (the moth damage) and they can also be destroyed from the outside (the rust). What does not get eaten up or rusted away can be stolen! As I have lived and labored I have learned a lot about this lesson already!

"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Well, that we all know is good advice.

What I want to look at today is verse 21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." If you watch the money flow, you will be able to see where a person's priorities are. Take a look at a persons' pocketbook or check book or credit card statement and you will find out what that person thinks is important.

Jesus wants us to understand the importance of placing our priorities in things that are eternal as opposed to things that are physical. If my focus is on earthly treasures, my heart will follow and the day will come when the earth and the things of the earth shall pass away. If my focus is on things that are eternal, my heart will follow and the treasures that are stored up in heaven will be there for me forever.

The purpose of this life is to get our soul to heaven. What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? When we as Christians invest our time, talents and tithes in God, we place our heart in His Hands! When we invest our lives in the things of Heaven, we place our heart in a fund that will pay tremendous dividends that will last forever!

In heaven you wont have to worry about moths or inflation; you wont have to worry about rust or devaluation and you wont have to worry about robbers or taxation!

Ain't God Good!

God Will Be Faithful Deuteronomy 7:9

"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep His commandment to a thousand generations."



God is faithful to His Word. He gave His Word for a very specific purpose and He intends to keep His Word. He is first of all going to be faithful to Himself. When God created the world and all that is in the world, He knew what He wanted to accomplish in His creation and He knows today what He wants to accomplish. There has never been a time in all of eternity when God was confused and wondered what He was going to do. God has never woke up wondering what He was going to do that day. There has never been a time when something occurred to God! He is an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-encompassing God who is in complete control of everything that is going on in His world.

Not only is God going to keep His Word to Himself, He intends to keep His covenant to those who love Him and keep His commandments. God gave His commandments as a guide to His provisions and His blessings. To understand God's purpose in creating mankind, God wants to do so much for us. His promises give us a glimpse of His compassion and His plans for our lives. God does not need us to complete Him. He is complete in and of Himself. He is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He chose to create man as an outlet for His love.

We were created for more than fellowship with God. God has a desire to have fellowship with us so He can meet our needs and give us His blessings. God is blessed as He is able to bless us. So, He will keep His promises because that is His purpose for our creation in the first place. As we surrender our wills to His Word, and put our faith in Him though obedience, God is going to keep His promises to us.

We also have to remember that God sent His Son who gave His blood as a ransom to all of God's promises to us. His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins so that God could be our God and we could be His people. He has already proven that He will do anything to secure our eternity as well as keep his promises to us as His obedient children.

In addition to keeping His promises to us, our obedience to God's Word touches our children and their children's children! We never stop benefiting from keeping God's commandments and God never stops blessing us as He so much wants to do. God wants to be God in our lives. Make no mistake about it, He will keep His promises as we keep His commandments!

Wisdom From God Ecclesiastes 7:12

For wisdom is a defense and money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to them that have it.



In verse 11 we read, "Wisdom is good with an inheritance and by it there is profit to them that see the sun." Here Solomon is going to talk about the importance of money and wisdom. Solomon was a man who was given both. God blessed Solomon in that he asked for wisdom and God gave him wisdom beyond measure and because of the wisdom that Solomon was given, he amassed a great fortune and became one of the wealthiest men of his day.

Solomon knew the value of money and he also knew the benefits of having money to throw around wherever and whenever he wanted to do so. He could throw a party and everyone who was anyone would be there. In fact, even those who were "no ones" tried to attend! He knew first hand the benefits of being able to buy what he wanted to buy and do what he wanted to do. Money is a defense or a means to living life to its fullest.

Solomon says that wisdom is a defense. In fact, he mentions wisdom first as he talks about wisdom and money. Life is a process of priorities. When our priorities are in the right order, our lives will reflect the proper balance and we will enjoy the fruits of our labor. When our priorities are out of balance, our decisions will reflect that imbalance and our lives will not take shape, as we would like for them to. Money has its value, as does wisdom.

Solomon goes on to say, "the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to them that have it."
Knowledge is that which we have learned. So Solomon is saying in effect, "the value of our experience or what we should have learned in life is that wisdom gives life to those that have it."

The dictionary tells us that wisdom is "The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight. Common sense; good judgment; The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge." This ability to discern or judge what is true or right or lasting is what gives life to those who have it.

There are two sources of wisdom. We can learn wisdom by trial and error as we live our lives and make mistakes and experience relative success or we can learn from the wisdom and experiences of those who have gone before us and we have the benefit of being able to see where their lives have taken them and by listening to the things that they have learned, we can achieve similar results in our lives if we do as they have done.

God wants to be our source of wisdom. As the creator and sustainer of life, He knows what will work and what will not work in your life and in mine. He knows what decisions we need to make as He seeks to move us from where we are to the place that He wants us to be. He knows the desires of His heart for you and me. He has the resources to take supply all of our need. He has the ability to defeat all of our enemies. He has the desire to bless us exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or hope for.

Sweet Sleep Proverbs 3:24

When you lie down you shall not be afraid. Yes, you shall lie down and your sleep shall be sweet.




The only thing that will defeat fear is faith. When we place our faith in the Lord Jesus, we will be able to lie down and not be afraid and God promises that our sleep will be sweet. There is no security that is any sweeter than the security that is ours in the Lord Jesus. The problem that a lot of us have is we go to bed trying to find the solution to our problems on our own. We want to be masters of our own destiny. We want to be in charge and we want to know exactly what is going to happen, how it is going to happen and when. We do not like surprises and we do not like not knowing how things are going to work themselves out.

When we go to bed trying to work out our own situations, we may find rest difficult. It is difficult to try to go to sleep when our lives are in disarray. However, when we leave our lives to the Lord, He is able to give us rest and take care of the circumstances that surround our lives. God is able to still the storms and calm the waves that can come up around us.

There is no peace that is any better than the peace that is ours in the Lord Jesus. When we leave our lives to His leadership and we learn to walk with Him, we will find that our fears will begin to disappear and our sleep will be sweeter.

I remember when I got saved, I realized that is was lost and that was the worst feeling that I have ever known. I remember as a 10 year old boy crying myself to sleep at night because I knew I was lost and I wanted to be saved. This took place for several nights and then on Thursday night, I remember laying down and I asked the Lord to forgive me of my sin and to come into my heart and it was as if God reached down and picked me up and pulled me close to his bosom and all I remember was going to sleep in His arms. I have never gone to sleep since then not knowing that He is mine and that I am His!

There is no sleep any sweeter than the sleep that is ours because we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and we have made Him Lord and Master of our lives!

Protect My Heart Philippians 4:7

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.



When the storms of life begin to blow, there can be peace in the midst of the storm. You see God is greater than our storms. God not only knows the solution for our problems, He is that solution! God has our lives in the palm of His hand and He knows what we are facing even before we ever face it. God is never caught off guard; God is never confused about what He is going to do and He is never surprised about anything. You and I can find peace and assurance in the fact that God is God and He is in charge of this world. He is in control of every action and every equal and opposite reaction. The truth is there is an equal and opposite reaction to every action because God is in control!

When you and I are willing to place our lives in God's hands, we will discover an assurance that we cannot describe in our hearts and in our lives. We may not know where our next meal will come from but we will know that it will come because we know that God will provide! There is no assurance that is any sweeter than the assurance that we are His and that He is ours.

When we trust the Lord, God promises to keep our hearts and our minds as He gives us that peace. It is so easy to let our circumstances and situations get the best of us. It is too easy to allow our problems to get too big and to the point where we really cannot see beyond them. When we take our eyes off of the Lord, we are in trouble of losing our focus and there is no hope for us at that point. The temptation is to look at our problems and try to solve them. The problem is we cannot do for ourselves that which God has planned to do for us. He is the giver of life and the provider of peace, which protects our hearts and our minds!

It is no wonder that we are a society in America today where there is so much turmoil. We are failing to walk with God and when we do not walk with Him we are headed in the wrong direction and we cannot get where we need to be! God promises to protect our hearts and our minds, as we trust in Him! As God protects our hearts and our minds He gives us His peace. God's peace can cure a lot of ailments that can captivate our minds and capture our hearts and cause us to fear and fret.

God does not want us to be held captive to fear; God's remedy for fear is faith in Him! When we place our faith in Him, His peace passes all understanding and He will guard our hearts and protect our minds and our lives will be filled with all the fullness that He has in store for us!

Prayer's Promise Hebrews 4:16

"Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need."



Perhaps the most underrated and underused power that we have available to us is that of prayer. As God's children, we are admonished to come to Him in prayer that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Notice how we are to come. Paul says that we are not to just come to God's throne, but we are to come boldly to the throne of grace. Remember God's grace is His giving to us what we do not deserve. The desire of God's heart is to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He wants us to come to Him boldly, in faith, believing that He is everything that He says He is and that He will do for us everything that He says He will do. There is no bolder step that we can take than that!

When we come to him, we find God's mercy. While God's grace is God giving to us things that we do not deserve, God's mercy is Him not giving to us what we do deserve. In God's mercy, He forgives us and restores us to fellowship with Him. Our sinful, selfish, stubborn wills are in constant conflict with God's will for our lives. As we seek to make God's thoughts our thoughts, he is then able to make His ways our ways. When we look to our own devices for direction as we make our decisions, we turn from God and that is when we need His mercy and His forgiveness!

Here is the real thrust of this passage. God wants to be our "first response" as opposed to our "last resort." When we have a decision to make, God's desire is that we come boldly to His throne for direction and guidance in that decision. Look at what Paul says, "that we may find grace to help us in time of need." God's guidance in our time of need is available to us if we will just avail ourselves to it!

Prayer is the key that unlocks the windows of heaven and allows God to pour out His blessings in to our lives! Prayer leads us from the snare of temptation to the path of righteousness. Prayer allows us to make decisions that head us in the right direction to find life that is full and abundant. Prayer moves us from where we are to the place that God would have us go. Prayer is the place where we begin to move out of our need and into the place of God's provisions.

Come boldly to the throne of grace today and obtain mercy and find God's grace to meet your need. Prayer's promise is "God will not let you down!"