Live Delivered

Today is December 25^th, the day in 2023 that we will acknowledge the birth of Jesus Christ our savior.  We typically refer to this time as Christmas Day.  It should indeed be a happy and joyous time for all who believe in Christ.

Scripture gives us several accounts of the birth of Christ.  In Luke 2:7 scripture says, “And she brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Joseph and Mary had travelled from Galilee to Bethlehem where Jesus was born.  Scripture tells us there was no room for them at the inn in town. Joseph and Mary may not have found a place to lodge at the inn, but I have a question for you.  Will you Make Room in your life for your Savior?  

Joseph and Mary did not have reservations at the inn and there were no vacancies. But don’t be alarmed.  It is probable that the owners of the inn didn’t know who these two were.  They didn’t see a need to make special provisions for common people.

So, Joseph and Mary had to make room for the birth of Jesus the best they could.  They found some cover and after Jesus was born, they wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger.  Jesus was not a poor baby born to poor parents.  Swaddling cloths were customarily used to wrap newborns babies at their births.

Swaddling cloths were a way to say this baby is wanted not unwanted.  Jesus may not have been born in a special place, but Mary and Joseph made room for Him to be brought forth and treated like a special baby born to be a special person to bring eternal life to a special people.

So, there are several ways we can make room in our lives to acknowledge the birth and life of Jesus. Will you make room in your life and a place for some swaddling cloths and a manger?  Jesus may show up at the inn of your life at any time, and He may do so without reservations.

Joseph and Mary left the comfort of their home in Galilee to go to Bethlehem at a time when she was due to deliver Jesus any day.  They did that because Bethlehem is where they needed to be.  Jesus gave up His life, went to a cross and was raised from death so He could deliver us from ourselves.  He came to where He needed to be.

If you are going to make room in your life for His life, you may be asked to leave where you are to go to where you should be.  Jesus is with you always, but He is waiting for you to go to where you should go so you can celebrate the His birth into your life here on earth.  Will you do it?

The innkeeper in Bethlehem did not make room for an unexpected guest.  They probably missed an unexpected blessing.  Will you make room in the inn of your life for the life of our Savior?  He needs a place to stay with you so He can give you a better place to live your life.  Will you do it?

Joseph and Mary had to use a manger as Jesus’ first bed because normal accommodations were not available.  They made a manger to work for Him as His first bed.  Your life will work for Him if you are willing to allow that.  Will you make room for Jesus to lay His head down in the manger of your life?

So, let’s make Christmas 2023 about making room for Him all the time.  Let’s use this day to start living like every day is a day that He needs the accommodations of a manger in our lives.  Let’s make sure we keep some swaddling cloths around so that He can use them to wrap around our lives.

You see, He is a special person born in a special way to a special God for a special people.  He wraps us in the swaddling cloths of His love so that all the world will know we are not unwanted but deeply desired by our Heavenly Father.  He makes room for us so that we will make room for Him.

Make Him Room today.

Merry Christmas.Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

In Luke 2:10-11, scripture says an angel spoke to some shepherds who were watching their flocks on the day Christ was born.  It says as the angel stood before them, they were afraid.  So, the angel said, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

This all happened on the day before the birth of Christ.  It’s what we call Christmas Eve.  It was good news indeed.  News they loved hearing!

However, the first real Christmas Eve probably happened without much to do.  To everyone but a few it was probably just a normal day.  The word eve means the period of time just before something important is about to happen.  When the angels talked to the shepherds, the most important thing that could be had already just happened.  Christ was born.

The shepherds and all people at that time had to look back and find joy at what had just happened.  For us, Christmas Eve means we get to look ahead with anticipation to experience the joy of knowing already of the birth that changed the world for everybody.

I wonder if we are as joyful and as happy at the birth of Christ as the shepherds were?  They were there to experience it; we get to celebrate it.  The shepherds decided to go to Bethlehem to see what had just happened.  They went to see the baby savior that God had promised.  In their excitement, they were moved to go and find the joy that had come to the whole world.

As we look forward to tomorrow, the day we will acknowledge and celebrate the birth of Christ, let’s do that with joy and great anticipation.  Where will we go?  What will we do?  We are blessed that many people have written songs about the birth of Christ to help us celebrate what tomorrow means to the world.  One of my favorite songs is O Holy Night.

The words to O Holy Night say this:

O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
‘Til He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn’.

Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;

O night divine, O night, O night divine.

The words go on to say,

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother;
And in His name, all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

Christmas Eve then is the evening before an amazing event for us.  Look around for your brightly shining star.  It will lead you to where you should be.  Recognize we were a world lost to sin until He appeared and gave each of us a sense of worth, value, and hope.  Today we may be weary from living in a world dominated by sin but tomorrow we can rejoice because He will break the bonds of sin for us all.

Let’s fall on our knees today and thank God for Him.  Listen to what the angel is trying to say to you.  Keep the day and all about you holy and divine because in His name all oppression shall cease for us.  Sing to Him sweet words of joy with a heart of gratefulness.  Praise His Holy Name with all that you are.

He is Lord on this Christmas Eve, and tomorrow for many, He can be Lord and Savior.

So, as we look to celebrate His birthday, let’s look at this eve before the day and thank Him for what He has already done for us.  Indeed, it is the greatest news of the greatest thing that could ever be.  It is news we can really love to hear over and again.

Let’s spend this Christmas Eve with a song in our hearts as we acknowledge what tomorrow means.  O Holy Night indeed.  Christ our Savior is born.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love You

I have a feeling I want to share with you.  It may be a sin—I don’t know.  I hope that it is not.  But here it is.  I don’t want anyone who does not care about me to care for me.  I don’t know if that is pride or foolishness.  But I’m telling you that is how I feel.  If you don’t care about me, I will find it difficult to accept that you will want to care for me.

Caring about suggests that your feelings are involved in your care of others.  Caring for suggests you are willing to do things for others even though you may not care about them.  Caring about is focused on making life greater for others.  Caring for is focused on you doing what is expected of you.

Why is all this important?  Well, it’s Jesus.  He taught us about caring in John 13.  Scripture says that after the Lord’s last supper with the disciples, He washed their feet.  As He did this, Peter challenged Him by saying, “No Lord.  You cannot wash my feet.”  In verse 8, Peter and Jesus had this conversation.  “Peter said to Him, you shall never wash my feet!”  Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

I believe I would have acted like Peter.  How could I allow the Lord, the Son of God, the King of Kings, to wash my feet?  He is too holy, and I am too unholy.  But, washing us is one of the key reasons Jesus came to us.  And He didn’t just come to do a job, He came because He cares about each of us, and because He cares about us, He cares for each of us.

Jesus teaches us to both care about others and to care for others.  He wants to make certain that as we go about serving the needs of others we do it with right spirit, the right heart, and the right emotion.  He wants more than caring for; He wants us to care about.

By washing the feet of His disciples, He teaches us to be humble and to be servants.  Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet because the task was too menial.  Jesus’ response was that you cannot truly be identified with Me unless I wash you.  Most of us get the message loud and clear.  We should practice humility and serve others as Christ did.  We must first care about others as the basis of our care for others.  But there is another message that goes to who we are.

You and I can have no part with Jesus today unless we too are washed by Him. Yes, the truth then is still truth today.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  You and I, if we are to be identified with Him, we must be washed by Him today.

Today, He lives in us through His Word and by His Spirit.  The Word of God is the Son of God and by His Love and His care about us, He saves us all.  By washing and regenerating and renewing us, He transforms us into His very likeness.

When Jesus washes us, He doesn’t just remove our dirt.  He deposits His virtue and His care about others into our hearts so that we can care about others and care for others as He did.  Jesus knew Peter needed more than just the example of humility and servanthood.  You and I need more than that too.

So, He says, “Let Me wash you, cleanse you, and regenerate you from what you are into My likeness.”  You cannot love like Him with your old heart.  You cannot think like Him with your old mind.  You cannot do like Him with your old spirit.

He must wash all the old things away so that He can give you new things.  So, rather than being like Peter, and like I was, let’s learn to stay before Him and ask Him daily to wash us.  We cannot have a part with Him unless we accept that He wants to wash us daily.  Wash us Lord daily and continually.

Live A Delivered Life.  Love you.

Sometimes, in our immaturity, we may ask ourselves where is God?  When things are tough for us day after day, when bad stuff happens more and more often, we may wonder where is God?  Why does it feel like sometimes we are alone in a world that is bent on doing evil all the time.

I say we are immature because in asking where God is we are also saying that perhaps God must be present before He can do anything for us.  We may think that God must be with us physically to see what we are going through.  But this is not so.

Psalm 42:1 says something similar this way.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  God’s answer to this is simple.  You are never alone.

The believer must never forget that their belief and their faith is what makes it possible for them to know they are never alone from God.  Sometimes our struggles will make us forget that God is everywhere.   He is omnipresent.  That means He is where you are, where you were, and where you will be all the time.

When Adam and Eve hid themselves from the Presence of God in the garden after their sin of disobedience, they thought they could be someplace God could not find.  They were wrong.  God was the very Garden in which they tried to hide themselves.  They were never alone.

God never plays the game of hide and seek with us.  We are never alone, and God is never absent from the place we are at the present.  If we seek Him, we will find Him.  It’s not hide and seek with Him but seek and find.  We find Him because we are never alone from Him.

There will be times our very persons will thirst for the Living God because life can be tough.  We may feel like we are all alone because all we see is the stuff that wants to make our lives miserable.  But we are never alone.

We ask ourselves where is the place we must go so we can meet up with the Lord? Our struggles we think, keep us from getting to Him.  What is keeping our prayers from reaching Him we ask?  “Nothing,” is His response.  We are never alone.

And people, yes people, like the friends of Job, will even mock us, asking, “Where is your God now?  Where is He in all this stuff?”  They will make us feel we are alone, telling us we are wrong.  They say, “Just accept it, and do what practical people do to fix things.”  They are wrong; we are never alone.

When the winds of struggle are all around you and about to sink you, remember that God is there, and He is not asleep in your boat.  You are never alone.

In your struggles, He is the one place you can find peace.  You are not alone.

When you do what surprises even yourself, you are not alone.  He never leaves you alone simply with your thoughts.

You are never alone.  The world wants you to be so preoccupied with your struggles that you will forget this.  People want to belittle you so much that you will forget you are bigger in Him.  You are never alone.  You can not go anyplace from the presence of God.

You cannot go anyplace from the power of God.  You cannot go anyplace from the Love of God.  Darkness cannot hide you from Him nor can the depths of despair keep Him from you.

So, remember today, you are never alone.  Remind yourself of this daily, moment by moment.  He created you and He knows you.  No matter what you are facing today, remember you are in His presence, no matter how you may feel.

And if you know you are in His presence, you can know that He knows what you are facing and is ready to show you a way to live more freely in the light of darkness because He isn’t just with you to watch what happens with you.

He is with you so that you can learn to watch what He can do with you.  You are never alone.  Don’t give up on knowing that.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.  

I’m sure some of you it said, “Don’t just bring problems to the surface; bring also solutions.”  There are many ways we can look at this statement.  It is fitting for many of us who look only for problems in life or to find those things others are doing wrong.  You know what I mean.  Those of us who have a critical or condemning spirit would love to show us everything about everyone else that is wrong.

In a way, Jesus had to deal with this in some of His disciples.  In Matthew 9:13 He tells them, “You give them something to eat.”  He did this after the disciples came to Him telling Him to send the people away before dark so they could find food for themselves.

Jesus responded by saying, “Why don’t you do something?”  They responded by telling Him they only had a few loaves of bread and two fish among them. This was not enough, they thought, to feed five thousand people.  Still, Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”  He did not say give them give them a five-course dinner, but He wanted the people to eat something.

The disciples were looking at the size of the problem and considered a big problem needed an even bigger way to solve it.  In their minds sending the people to the towns around them was the best way to ensure they could get something to eat.  Or was it really?

Sometimes we are like this today.  Sometimes we are too busy to be bothered with the problems of others.  Something we are too privileged to let problems people cause for themselves become our problems.  Sometimes we think, “You caused it; you fix it.”  We find ways to do nothing except point out blame or fault.

When we see our neighbor’s child hungry, do we feed them, or do we criticize the parents for being poor parents?  Do we pray, “Lord, fix those worthless parents”, or do we feed the child?  Do we see the child’s hunger, or do we see our pride?  Do we see the parents’ faults, or do we see our hard hearts?

We should be grateful our Lord is not like we are.  Jesus was saying to the disciples, “If you do something with what you have, then I will do what you cannot do.”  You do something.  When a person is down to their last, Jesus is wondering if we will be willing to give up our last for them?  Are we?

Jesus challenges us with the problems we are blessed to see.  He wants to see us do something for others from what we have and from what we do not have.  He wants to hear us say, “Lord I have done this, and I have done that, but we still have this problem for these people.  Please help us.”

Jesus took the little food the disciples had and fed over five thousand people from it.  Many of us think He fed them with it, but He fed them from it.  With it would mean each person got a tiny crumb of the five loaves and of the two fishes.

But Jesus doesn’t feed us our needs from our lack.  He fulfills our needs by using our lack.  By using five loaves and two fishes, He was able to multiply that into what was sufficient for everyone to be fed to the full.  When you do something, He will what you do and multiply that in ways to completely satisfy the problems you face.

Our role in all this is to do something.  When we see a need, let’s be willing to do something by giving all that we can so that when we go to the Lord, He is able to do something more from what we have done.  Don’t wait for Him to tell you to do something.  Do something.  Then tell Him in your prayers for others what you have done.

When you do something, He will work from what you have done to do what cannot be done.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Genesis 31 tells of Jacob with his family leaving Laban to return to his home.  The account says Jacob left without informing Laban because he was afraid of how Laban would respond.  In Genesis 31:24, Laban was about to go and overtake Jacob.  Scripture says God did not stop him, but He warned him.

It says, “But God had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him.  Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”  In other words, God was saying to Laban, be careful not to act in anger when you catch up with Jacob.  I won’t like that, and you won’t like that I won’t like it.  I am no idol.

In Genesis 31:30 Laban says, “And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”  The gods Laban is talking about were the household idols that belonged to Laban.

Laban was angry because he thought Jacob had taken the things that he worshipped.  We could call them his idols, we could call them his gods, or we could call them the things he worshipped.  However we choose to refer to them, Laban didn’t have the sense to realize that the God who spoke to him in a dream is the only true God.

Listen, the gods we create are not the same as the God who created us.  In fact, I will say that we shouldn’t even refer to the things we create as gods at all.  There is only one God though there may be many things we hold as idols.  But we must be careful never to idolize anything in the way we should hold our God.

Laban was chasing after something to which he gave his intentional praise and adoration.  He was chasing after something he had given a special position in his life.  We must never give to anything the things that we should only give to God.  We must never hold anything in a position in our lives that should only be occupied by God.

I don’t believe it’s wrong by itself to have love for things.  But we should remember this.  Things are things.  We shouldn’t love things like we love God.  Things are things.  If God is not at the top of your life, then nothing else should be there. We should have nothing higher than God.

The gods Laban created came from his thoughts and his mind.  They were not the same as the one true God.  The gods we create are not the same as our God. 

Laban had many gods; our God is one.  He has us, or we are lost.

Laban’s gods could not speak or hear; our God speaks to us, and He listens to us.

Laban’s gods could not keep themselves from being stolen; our God keeps us from being stolen away.

Laban’s gods could exist only in the place he placed them; our God exists in everyplace and in anyplace.

Laban’s gods could not prevent themselves from being moved; our God lives everywhere and moves anywhere as He pleases.

Laban’s gods could not think or act; our God thinks and acts on our behalf always.

Laban’s gods were created by Laban; our God has always existed, and He created us.

Laban’s gods were powerless; our God is all power.

The gods we create are not the same as the God who created us.  Let’s make sure that as we live each day we do not intentionally or unintentionally create the idea of something that might take the position that God should occupy in our lives.

Let’s make sure nothing gets the praise and worship that we should only give God.

When we remember they are not the same, we will learn to live on God’s mantel, in God’s house, in God’s mind, and in His heart.  And when He is ready to move, He will move us along with Him.  We will never have to go looking for God when we remember we live in Him more than He lives in our thoughts.

We may lose our idols, but we can never lose our God because we are found by Him, held by Him, given life in Him, and we have life by Him.  He is not the same as anyone or anything else.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

In Matthew Chapter 11 we have one of Jesus’ most impactful messages on gratefulness and thanksgiving.  Here He teaches us about the power of John the Baptist’s message and how the privileged leaders of the time were ungrateful and unwilling to change.

In Matthew 11:25, Jesus prays this prayer of Thanksgiving.  He says, “I thank You Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.”  The things He speaks of were the things of the salvation we all need.

The elite people of the time did not appreciate the truth and significance of John’s message.  The status and provisions they had kept them from seeing what they needed most.  But the people who had little were thankful for how much John’s message meant for them.

So, here we are today, Thanksgiving 2023.  Will we find in ourselves the heart of gratefulness and thankfulness Jesus had for Who God is and for what He means to us?  Jesus is the Son of God, yet He had the sense to recognize the need for the work of God in a world where man wants his own work to be dominate.

So, as you get your Thanksgiving Day started for 2023, do so by first thanking the Lord for thanking God for being our God.  Yes, I said thank the Lord for thanking God.

Be thankful today because Jesus was grateful that our God lives to serve all our needs.  He was grateful on our behalf.

Acknowledge someone today who is like a John the Baptist of our time.  Just as Jesus took the time to acknowledge the importance of John and the impact his work had on the people of the times, let’s be thankful for the people who still go forth proclaiming the salvation of the Lord.  We need that!

Jesus enjoys the close relationship He has with each of us, and He loves spending time with us.  So, you ought to enjoy the day and the food and the fellowship you will have with Him and with those close to you.  

And keep the day in perspective.  More than being thankful for what we have, be thankful that God has chosen to make us a part of His plans.

Start the Day with prayer like Jesus:

I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You are:

The God of all people – and God of our life.

That You live for us so that we may live in You.

That You are all our provision so that we need not to worry about what we may lack.

That You love loving each of us and in doing so we will learn to love You and to love others.

That You speak to us like the babes of Your heart, so that we can learn to come to You and learn to live by what You will reveal to us.

Thanksgiving 2023 is indeed a day for us to learn to live humbly before God and others, but to live richly in the provisions of His blessings and in His mercies and in His Love.

As much as we are thankful for the food and the day away from work we have today, let’s be thankful that God is our God.

We cannot count all our blessings, but we can count on being blessed all the time because He is our Father.  Let’s give Him all our Thanksgiving for that.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I have some questions for you. Have you ever wondered why it can be difficult sometimes to have a simple conversation with someone? Have you known anyone who will argue every point you make so that you listen to the points they want to make?  Have you ever known someone who will reject the facts and the truth for what they would rather believe?

Well, if you have lived longer than a year, I am sure you have come across someone like this.  They seem like the most difficult people to talk with.  I can hear myself saying these people, “You cannot tell them anything.”  Now, I don’t mean you cannot talk with them, I simply mean you cannot reason with them.

But we must reason with them.  And we must do that by trying to get them to see themselves more than by trying to make a point with them.  You must do this because people like this have hardened their hearts; they have dulled their eyes and they have closed their ears to feeling, seeing, or hearing most things that are clear to others.

In Matthew 13:14-15, Jesus speaks of these type people when He explains why He speaks in parables.  Scripture says this.  “Therefore, I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  For the hearts of these people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.”

Stubborn!  That is my word for people like this.  I believe people like this are fearful of change because they have learned to be comfortable just as they are.  Jesus is of course different from me.  He doesn’t use simple words for these people.  He describes people like this by speaking to their hearts, their ears, and their eyes.

Sometimes we don’t hear anything contrary to what we want to hear.  Our ears may hear what is spoken but we may quickly reject what we hear so that we can speak what we want to hear.  As Jesus says, we may hear, but we do not understand.

Sometimes we don’t see what is contrary to what we want to see.  Our eyes may see what is before us, but we tell ourselves we want to see something different.  So, we cannot see what is real, only what we want to be real.  As Jesus says, we may see, but we are not able to perceive what is real.

Sometimes we don’t feel what is contrary to what we feel.  Our hearts may sense what is before us, but we tell ourselves we don’t want to feel that way.  Instead, we want to feel the way that makes us comfortable.  As Jesus says, we may feel, but we are not able to experience the right feeling.

As believers we must see, hear, and feel that life is not going to be easy for us.  We do not have to come to live hardened lives because things in life are hard for us.  We must learn never to harden how we live when we are faced with some hard things.

Instead, let’s learn to soften ourselves as we live in the most difficult of times.  A soft answer turns away wrath.  The harder we make life for ourselves, the harder life will be for us.  Anyone can be your enemy if you treat them like they are an enemy.  Let’s learn to respond to hard things with better things.

Jesus did that for us when He died for us, and He does this for us daily as He lives for us.  Let’s learn to live a soft life in the middle of the hardest things in life.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.  

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, we have the account of Paul and his “thorn in the flesh.”  Paul was sharing a message about his conversion and the privilege he had to be used for the Lord’s purposes.  The thorn was a way to keep him from thinking more highly of himself than anyone else.

The thorn kept Paul from being proud—and a few other things.  The scripture says Paul asked the Lord three times to remove the thorn from his body.  Whatever it was, the thorn bothered Paul so much that he asked the Lord to remove it. 

According to Paul, “And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)  In short, Jesus said to Paul, “No. ”  The Lord refused to remove Paul’s thorn.  I don’t know about you, but when I go to the Lord asking for something, I am always looking for Him to say, “Yes.”

What should be our response when the Lord says no to us?  Well, there are several things the Lord taught us in how He responded to Paul.

First, we need to understand that we cannot live our lives without the presence and the active play of grace.  Not all of life will be easy going for us.  Not all of life will be full of good for us. We need the grace of the Lord to get through life in the way we should.

Whether difficult or easy, whether good or bad, we need the grace of the Lord to learn how to live with it all.  Grace helps us to learn to face each day with humility and with the understanding that we need the favor of the Lord to get through our tough times and our good times so that we do not come to rely on our own strength.

Jesus also taught us that our strength is just enough to keep us in our weaknesses.  How is this so?  Because our strength is imperfect.  It can only help us deal with something weaker than we are.  Life will throw at us many things that are greater than our strength.  The Lord wants us to understand we need more than our own grit and determination to live free.

Finally, Jesus taught us that weaknesses and challenges are a natural part of life.  Some of us may have more than others, but we all have our weaknesses, and we all have our challenges.  Jesus says to us that His strength, which works in us in the form of His grace, is perfected in our weaknesses.

So, there are times when we ought to ask for more grace than more freedom because the more grace we have the stronger and more overcoming we become.  We should ask for more patience than more freedom.  The more patient we are the more understanding we become.  And we should ask to be more forgiving, and we should ask for more forgiveness than more freedom from the need to forgive.  The more we forgive the more blessed we are.  

If you are being pressed on all sides today to give more at work than what you believe you should receive, give more!  More grace will be poured into you and in your humility, you will be strengthened beyond the thing that is stronger.

Paul said he would rather boast in his infirmities so that the power of Christ might rest upon him.   I am not so strong that I will boast about the things that challenge me, but I will do this.  Knowing that sometimes the Lord will say no to my requests, I will look for the strength of His grace and His presence in all that I face.

I will do that because when He says no, I am reminded that when I am weakened by anything, I am strengthened by Him.

So, when He says no to you, perhaps it’s because your grace tank is almost empty or your humility tank is almost empty, or your thankfulness tank is almost empty.  Whatever it is, be grateful that when He says no, He always has something better to offer that we didn’t ask for.  He fills your tanks with something powerful!

When He says no, you can be sure He offers a way for you to be made stronger in and with whatever is your challenge.  He may not remove your challenge, but He will always make a way for you to move on in strength and in power with your challenge in tow.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The Lord always has a standard for our behavior that is higher than anything we could have thought.  I sometimes find it amazing. Actually, if I am totally open with you, there are many times I’d rather just simply follow the law of things than follow the heart of what Jesus wants.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 5, we find multiple times where Jesus uses this statement as He teaches.  He says, “You have heard that it was said of those of old.”  Then He follows those statements with these words “but I say to you.”

For example, Matthew 5:43 says, “You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

When I hear that I wonder if the Lord really means what He says to us.  I ask, “Lord, You say that You want us to love our enemies and to bless the people who curse us and to do good to those who hate us.  Is this what you really mean for us to do, Lord?”

Every time I ask this question, He says, “Yes, I really mean it.”  His silence tells me that He wants what is best and what is good for everyone, not just for me.  He really means that.

People can be the opposite of that, especially those among us who may have some authority.  Many will want us to follow the law, the rules, and the norms that they make. We end up serving the ways of man more than we serve the heart of God.

The Lord has a way of taking us beyond merely following the rules we make. He takes us to the place where we become the spirit of what of what no rule can make us.  But to do this He knows that we must become very mindful of listening to the things we have heard others say.

Others want us to live under the idea of rules, norms, and laws because we cannot live together without these.  But Jesus wants us to learn to live happily with rules, norms, and laws because we live happily in Him.

He really means it when He says to love our enemies.  It makes our enemies more friendly towards us.

He also really means it when He says that if you are angry with anyone you are in danger of His judgment  (Matthew 5:22). Anger develops when love is absent.

Again, He really means it when He says never to swear but just let your yes be your yes (Matthew 5:33-37).  He wants us to be people of our words.

Here is what Jesus is saying:

• What good is it for us that we follow the law, but we still have hate in our hearts?  How can we love when we hate?

• What good is it for us if we follow the law, but we still detest the law?  How can we follow what we do not like?

• What good is it for us if we do what we have heard others say its okay to do, but we miss out on being who He says we should be?  How can we really serve Him when we serve our own desires?

Does He really mean what He says?  Well, the simple answer is yes, He does.  We should never question that.  What we should question is why on earth would we want to live according to what we have heard others say is ok to do.

The Lord wants us to live before others in a way that makes them wonder about who we listen to.  When we learn to live happily above the things that would make us more like them, it will make them wonder if we really mean it.

Learn to listen more to Him than you do to them, and when He tells you something hard to believe, just remember, yes, He really means it.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.