I have never walked this idea out before, so I hope it makes sense. God makes promises. Sometimes God makes promises directly to people about those people. Other times He makes promises to people about other people. Sometimes this is directly stated. Other times it is indirectly implied. The Bible is full of God's promises. That's one reason it is important to read the Bible. God made promises to Abram (Abraham) about a nation that would come from him. That promise was direct to Abram. And it included specifics about the nation. It also included promises to those who would bless Abraham's descendants. That is kind of an open-ended promise, yet very targeted. Jesus promised things to His disciples. Some things were specific to certain disciples in His time. Other things were for all disciples including those in His time as well as those to come... us. As modern-day disciples, we also enjoy the blessings of those promises. It is interesting to think that God makes promises to people who don't exist yet. I mean, think about that for a minute. Imagine making a promise about people who won't be here for another 600 years. Interestingly enough, our memory doesn't always allow us to remember what we are told for one lifetime. How much less do we remember promises made to us that we never heard? In Genesis 15 God makes a specific promise to Abraham with a timeline. “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:13-16) In Exodus 23, as God is fulfilling that promise which is now over 600 years old, He makes another very specific promise. “I will cause the people ahead of you to feel terror and throw into confusion all the nations you come to. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you in retreat. I will send the hornet[m] in front of you, and it will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites away from you. I will not drive them out ahead of you in a single year; otherwise, the land would become desolate, and wild animals would multiply against you. I will drive them out little by little ahead of you until you have become numerous and take possession of the land." (Exodus 23:27-30) Now fast-forward to Numbers 13 where God is trying to bring His people into their promised land. They send 12 spies in to give them a report. 2 of the spies give a good report and encourage the people to obey God by going in to take dominion of the great land. But 10 of the spies advise against the conquest due to difficulties, including mysterious death in the land. “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!” So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. (Numbers 13:31-32) I wonder how many promises God made to me before I was born. I wonder how many times I have doubted His Word without even realizing He had already made promises to me. I am ashamed that I have lived in doubt or fear of things about which He has clearly spoken to me. It is entirely possible that God made promises to me hundreds or even thousands of years ago. I know that sounds silly. But what is more silly is that I would live as if He hasn't when the Bible is full of those promises. There are two types of people... Those who believe God's word, and those who don't. The world is full of more who don't believe than those who do. Be one of the ones that believes God. You will never be disappointed in faith, but doubt will leave you embarrassed and empty every time. God has made promises to you. Not just specifically to you, but to you through people you have never met. Trust Him today to do what He has already said He would do. Do not short-circuit His work through unbelief. I really believe God likes fulfilling promises people have forgotten about. And we should always receive God's promises. This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. Christians are not just on this planet to have a good time, though some of us can't help ourselves. We actually have a task. We are on a mission. That mission is to save the world. No pressure, right?!? Part of the difficulty in saving the world is to get people to understand they are in jeopardy. But most people know this. Most people recognize there is something wrong, and they are trying their best to survive the chaos. Unfortunately many people are satisfied to work all of this out themselves. They don't think they need a Savior they can't see. So sometimes the most difficult part of the Christian's mission is to get people to believe that we actually know the only way of escape. We have been saved by the only rescuer. To say people are skeptical is an understatement. There is a reason we are called 'believers' and they are called 'unbelievers.' It isn't because we are better or smarter, but simply because we have put our faith is Christ and they have not... yet. But let's be honest. It isn't easy to take someone's word on the most important faith issue in the universe. I mean, there must be dozens of religious options from which a lost person can choose. Why should they choose Christ? Well, we know why they should choose Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the absolute only way to obtain eternal life. So that part is easy. We know what we have to do, and why. But the 'how' is an interesting element. How do we get people who do not believe in and invisible God to believe that He is real? Well, it will always come down to faith. It always. has. Ultimately each person has to believe in what exists but cannot be seen. But God does give us all a peek into His reality. We can see God in nature. Just by looking around at the marvelous creation we can see that there is a God. And God has promised that anyone who truly looks for Him will find Him. But beyond that, He gives signs of Himself through the people who have come to believe in Him. At one point the people of God were enslaved in Egypt. God had promised to rescue them from their oppressors. He chose to use a human deliverer named Moses. God had worked miraculously in Moses' life, and even revealed Himself to him in a face to flame conversation where Moses saw God in a burning bush, and God told him that he would be the one to go to Egypt and lead His people to freedom. Moses was fearful of the prospect and this conversation ensued... Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” The Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from it, but the Lord told him, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. “This will take place,” He continued, “so they will believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” In addition the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was diseased, white as snow. Then He said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” He put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin. “If they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign." (Exodus 4:1:8) Here we see God using two things to prove Himself to unbelieving people. When Moses suggests that simply showing up and saying he is acting on God's behalf won't be enough to convince people in distress, God asks, "What is in your hand?" God will use whatever is handy. You are handy. Whatever you work with is what God will work with. You don't have to go to seminary or Bible college to be useful in the kingdom of God. God will use you in whatever stage of life you happen to be in. Moses was at that point a shepherd. He had a staff in his hand. God used his staff to show Himself. What is in your hand right now? It could be a pen. It could be a stethoscope. It could be a wrench. It could be a phone. It could be a tray of food. Whatever it is, God wants to use that. He wants to use your whatever you have to show Himself to those who don't believe. But what if they don't believe that? What if they think that your material blessings or tools of life are your own success? What if they see others who have the same things but are not believers? God then used Moses' own body to prove His greatness. This can be scary, but it is obviously very effective. God often proves Himself through our personal experiences in our own physical bodies. We are His, so He can do with us as He will. God may take you through a dark moment in order to reveal Himself to others on the other side. While some people may believe when we use our specific tools of communication, nothing speaks of the reality of God like a personal in-body revelation. The miracles God performs in us can be the greatest testimony. God wants us to surrender our stuff and our selves. He can and will use both to reach the lost and trapped unbelievers. He will use what we have as well as who we are. God isn't playing games with us or our emotions. He is simply trying to save the world. And not only do we have a front row seat to this amazing project. We are actually part of the crew. Today you will have the opportunity to use the tools in your hand to share the Good News with someone. Don't hesitate just because you think you are not qualified. God has qualified you. But then He may take it a step further and prove Himself through your own body. I don't know what this might look like. But it will be unbelievable... so that others may believe. An old song says, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands." But it seems that God uses our hands to get the world into His hands. As a tip, it is likely that you are reading this on your phone... which is in your hand. Use your phone to show the glory of God today. Right now, go to your Facebook and post something that will cause the unbelieving to believe. See how cool this is? This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. It is "Throwback Thursday" on Facebook. Many will be posting photos from back in the day to commemorate this sub-cultural holiday. We are not always kind when reflecting on our former selves. This is very apparent when women look back to the hairstyles or clothing they wore as teenagers. They often laugh or cry when they see the big hair or dated styles. It can even devolve into a ridicule session aimed at the time itself. This is ironic because during that time, they thought they were the coolest thing going. They were actually trendy. But time has a way of turning the hot of today into the lukewarm of tomorrow. While it can be funny to consider how silly we were in earlier times, we must be careful to not despise the process of growing up. The dated look can cause us to look down upon our younger days, but we should not let our current experience become a source of pride. One day you may look at pictures of yourself today and wonder what you were thinking. Instead we should realize that who we were was a part in making us who we are. Certainly there are things we did that should have been left behind. But that doesn't make them of no value. I don't crawl around on the floor anymore... but that doesn't discount the importance of me crawling when I was a baby. As they say, "You have to learn to crawl before you can walk." As painful as it may be, even the difficult times of our past are integral to who we are today. It has been said that, "Life is a stage." And yet, at the same time, life is made up of various stages. The photo attached to this devotional is of the first Apple computer. You will notice that there is no monitor. Even the keyboard was not actually included. Would you buy a computer today with no monitor or keyboard? Probably not. Someone could look at this picture and make fun of it. But that silly looking wooden contraption was the first step to changing the way humans communicate and interact. Make fun all you want... but you are reading this devotional on a computer that is the result of those early silly looking computers. Those early versions were necessary to the current expression. We have become who we are, but we are not who we will be. The Bible talks about this concept of maturing... "We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light." (Colossians 1:9-11) I may not be who I was. I may actually be disappointed in some things I did. I may roll my eyes at my former immaturity. I may weep at my failures. But I should see God's hand in my life. I have learned. I am learning. I have grown up in some areas. Rolling over was a major accomplishment for me. So was crawling. Then toddling. And walking. Then one day I ran. Life is about change. I am different today. I will be different tomorrow. The question is, will I be better different or worse different. Change is real. Hairstyles change. Clothing styles change. Computers change. Thinking changes. Today you will change. Do not despise change. Embrace it and let it be a stage for transformation. This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. There are two types of people in this world. Those who exchange eternal life for the passing pleasures of sin. And those who exchange the passing pleasures of sin for eternal life. Everyone is making an exchange. Today, you are making an exchange. Choose well. The Bible says, "God has put eternity in the heart of every man." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Consider how long eternity is, how eternally deadly sin is, and how eternally satisfying true holiness is. Don't make a bad exchange. There are no second chances, and life is too short to choose wrong. Yesterday there was another violent incident at a university. A Muslim attacked multiple people with his car and a knife. Since the tragedy, America has risen up to offer sympathy and prayers. Social media is flooded with messages about prayer. News personalities, celebrities, and politicians are offering thoughts and prayers. Even Ivanka Trump, daughter of the President-elect, Donald Trump offered this statement... "Sending love and prayers to the Ohio State University campus and community following today's tragic events." Prayer is important. Most people pray. Muslims pray to Allah. They face Mecca to pray to Allah. They do it five times a day. Hindus pray toward the idea of an ultimate peace (Brahman), communicating through many gods to access what they want. Followers of other religions may pray to their ancestors, or the sun, or the Earth. Christians pray to God. We pray primarily to the Father in the name or authority of Jesus Christ, by the leading of the Holy Spirit. During prayer we acknowledge who God is, and our dependency upon Him. We confess our sins or faults to Him. We thank Him for the blessings He bestows upon us. We seek His guidance and provision in our lives. We pray to a God we know... personally. And we expect Him to hear us and work in our behalf. For most of American history we have generally been Christian in our approach to God. This included our prayer habits. You can see this not only in the prayers of pastors, but in the prayers of politicians and most every prayer you read from early Americans. But something interesting has happened in our Western culture over the last couple of generations. As we have pushed God out of our mainstream, including our educational system, our government, and our marketplace, we continue to pray... but we have had to shift our prayer away from God. It doesn't make sense to pray to someone whose existence you deny, or whose input you don't want, right? So we still feel like we need to pray, but we have kicked God to the curb. That's awkward. What does that look like? Well, now instead of sending prayers to God, we send prayers to people. Prayer has morphed from being a petition we send to God, to being a package of thoughts and feelings we send to people. We have taken on an approach to prayer that is similar to the religions of the Far East. Prayer is now not a conversation we have with a personal God. Rather it is an exchange of feelings we have within the community. This makes sense. As we ejected God from our lives, we didn't replace Him with dolphins or the sun, or our ancestors. We replaced Him with ourselves. This is the religion of Humanism. Humans are the center or highest expression of life. It all makes sense. If humans are the ultimate life reality, then humans are the ones to whom we would send our prayers. In 1863, the President would announce that we were in desperate need of help, recognize Almighty God was the only one who could save us, and proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting, encouraging people to ask God to save us from destruction. But in 2016, most leaders, and most people will say that there are a few mentally ill people or religious extremists doing crazy stuff, so we should clamp down on bad actions with more laws, and send each other prayers, love, good vibes, energy hugs, or whatever turns you on. Think about your Facebook for a minute. If you ask for prayer for an issue you are facing, how often do people say, "Sending prayers your way"? I'm not trying to condemn the intent. But people used to say, "I will pray for you." This meant they would send prayers to God for you. Now they are sending prayers your way. This is a significant shift. We used to turn our attention upward to find deliverance from God, but we now turn our attention to each other to find good feelings in desperate times. We send prayers to people rather than God. Then we wonder why we are not rescued. We send prayers like we send gift cards or flowers. We ignore the only One who can truly save, and send our thoughts of sadness to people in need. We point to each other rather than pointing the hurting to God. We have abandoned the One who answers prayer, so how do we expect to receive the blessing of prayer? The Bible talks a lot about prayer. The word 'pray' can be found hundreds of times in Scripture. But not once are we told to send prayers to people. Rather, we are constantly told that we should send prayers TO God FOR people. Here is one mention of the purpose of prayer... "Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7) That's a pretty good word for America today... don't you think? In fact, it is probably a good word for you today. Today you will likely have a need. When you meet your crisis, it will be natural for you to seek support from friends. And that is NOT a bad thing. We were made to support each other in difficult times. But know that your ultimate help does not come from your horizontal relationships. It comes from your vertical relationship. Pray to God. If your friend is going through something, give them love. Send them a card or a note. But send your prayers for them to Heaven, where the God of the universe is waiting to work on their behalf. "Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2) In case you were wondering what a Christian prayer looks like, here is a basic prayer without specifics... "Dear Father God, I am limited, but I know you are infinite. I have no right to approach you based on my own deeds, for I know I fall short of what You created me to be. I repent of my sin. But You have been good to me. Thank you for giving me life, my family and friends, my health, my job, and every good thing. I do need help today. I need you to give me wisdom for dealing with a certain area of my life. I also need a special provision for an unexpected bill that has come up. I thank You for being my Provider, and I trust You to take care of me. I say and ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, who opened up the avenue for relationship with You... Amen." This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. |
AuthorMy name is David, and I want to know God more, and help other people find Him. Archives
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