Live Delivered

God is eternal. This means He has no beginning and no end.

The Word is God and God is the Word.

John 1:1 gives us an account of our beginning. It says this:

“In the beginning was the Word,

And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him,

And without Him nothing was made that was made.”

Before there was a beginning, God and His Word existed. It is important for us to understand this.  You and I could not exist if we were made by something that itself has its own beginning. We are unique in this way. Something that has always existed decided to create us so that we may exist. We all have a beginning, but God does not.

It has to be this way because God had to create what we know as the beginning. If we could establish the beginning of God, it is possible we could argue the existence of God. This scripture speaks of the eternality of God and of His Word. He existed before existence was possible.

This is what it means to say God is eternal and everlasting. To be eternal means something that has a beginning cannot establish a start time for something that always is and always was and always will be. This too is important to you because anything that has a beginning will have an end. We can be assured to know that God will never stop being God.

And where other gods must have a beginning and thus an end, our God exists in eternity so that we may have eternal life with Him.  So, knowing all this, we ought to be moved to run to Him and to live close to Him in every way.

Here are some things we can count on that should make us run to His presence every day and always:

Even though God has no beginning, we can count on the fact that His Word has always existed fully and in total. Nothing can be added to it, nor can anything be removed from it. Run to it.

His Word came from Him as did the knowledge He wants us to know about Him. Nothing about His existence came to us from a scholar or highly educated person. His Word will never change, and it can never be changed. Run to it.

Just as we can know the monetary amount of a coin by looking at either side, we can know God by looking to Jesus, and we can know Jesus by looking to God because the Word was God Himself and God was the Word. Both these facts are true and not contradictory. Run to it.

God made His Word to become flesh in the form of Jesus. And In Jesus, everything we know and even the things we do not know was made by Him. We can count on knowing where all things came from. Run to it.

These are truths and realities of life that should help us to better understand the amazing God we have. Knowing these things should help us understand why we should run to Him and never run from Him.

We should know life is contained in Him and never in ourselves. We should know that without Him we face a certain end with our end. But with Him our end is always contained in His eternal existence.

Let’s run to Him.  Our heritage is found in Him. He is our beginning. He is our savior. He is our redeemer. He is our God.

God has no history that can be found. But He makes it so that we can find His presence with us always. Because of this we should run to Him.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

Learn to look at what you see through the eyes and the Word of God more than through your eyes and your own understanding.

Romans 4:3 says this: “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Sometimes we do not see things as they really are because we look at things through the dirty lens of our own desires. Many years ago, I learned that it was better for me to allow the Word of God to read my life back to me and to tell me what it finds.  As much as I want to read the Word and to understand the Word, it is better for me to listen to what the Word says it finds in me.

If you listen more to what the Lord has to say about you then you will learn to live more like He wants you to live. Abraham did this.  He listened to what God said to him and then he acted out in ways that demonstrated his belief in what God wanted.

Abraham did not have to fit God’s desires to his action.  Abraham looked at the world through the eyes of God so that his actions fit with what God said.  Abraham turned things around.  Many of us should turn things around.  We want to believe what we see and do and then we look to find validation of that in God’s Word.   We should look to believe and see all of God’s Word and then we would see what that says about the things we see and do.

But this is difficult for many of us to understand and to do. We read the bible like we would read a newspaper.  Our objective is to learn what happened today so we can be informed. But we cannot learn how to live better by reading the newspaper because the newspaper is not an authority on life – especially not our lives.

The Lord wants to help us learn to live abundant lives but to do that we must be willing to change how we approach learning about the Lord.  We must turn things around.  More than reading and handling what the scripture says, we should turn things around so that the scripture handles who we are so that we can be who we should be.

In Hebrews 4:12 scripture also says that the “Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Many of us miss the understanding and the discernment found in this scripture.

The Word is living; it is not dead nor is it fiction.  Since it is living, we ought to allow the living to read the dead things in our lives and to tell us what it finds.

The Word is powerful and sharper than even the sharpest sword.  Since it is sharp, we should allow it to cut through our own thoughts and through our own ideas of how we should view life so that we can see clearly the life God wants us to live.

The Word is a discerner of our thoughts and intents.  Since the Word knows us better than we know ourselves, we should be happy to have the truth of our lives revealed to us by the righteousness of the Word.

None of this will happen and none of this will matter unless we learn to turn things around so that the Word tells us what it finds about us as it relates to how we should think, act and live.  We will get off track the more we try to look at things with what we think we know about the Word.

We must turn things around.  We can never the sharper than the Word.  We can never be more powerful than the Word.  We can never be a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the Word the way the Word is to us.

Today, why don’t you commit to turn things around?  When you open your eyes make sure you are looking first at the Word.  It should be the first thing and the filter through which you see anything else.  When you do that, the Word will tell you how you should think, act and live out what you see.

Lord, we want and need You to turn us around to see what You see more than to see what we want to see.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

Learn to listen to people who are smarter than you are, that will make you smarter than you are.

Many of us find it difficult to look for or to listen to people who are smarter than we are. That is because we do not like taking advice from others and we fail to realize the value of the wisdom found in others.  We don’t appreciate learning from others about the things we don’t know yet.

It is our pride and our foolishness that keep us from learning from others.  And it is our lack of humility that keeps us from knowing that we may not know all that is best for our lives. Do you know how fast an eagle can fly or how fast a deer can run?  Probably not.  Those are not things we just typically know.

It is our pride and our foolishness that would tell us we do not need to know that.  And our lack of humility would keep us from learning those things from others. Since the beginning of time, man has had problems listening to others who are smarter. But God wants us to be different.

Proverbs 23:12 tells us to “Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.” This is saying for us to be intentional in looking for the ways you should live and to always listen for the knowledge of things you do not know. Many of us will not do this because our foolishness and our pride will keep us from hearing the wisdom of this proverb.

Proverbs 23:22 says “listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.”  Be intentional in seeking to hear what your parents have to say and make it a point to desire their advice. But we do not like taking the advice of others, even our parents, as much as we want to give advice to others.

There is always someone stronger than you. There will always be someone better at this thing than you are.  There will always be someone who can run faster than you can. And there will always be someone smarter at life than you are. The wise and the prudent person in you would seek to find those people and to learn from them.

Do not allow your pride to keep you from learning the difference and importance between advice and wisdom. In Exodus 18:19, Moses’ father-in-law gave him some advice when he said, “Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you.”  Moses was humble enough to take that advice.  He listened.

In Exodus 18:17, Moses father-in-law shared some wisdom with Moses when he said, “The thing you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you and you are not able to perform it by yourself.”

Moses was not offended by this wisdom as he listened to his father-in-law who could see where his actions would be harmful to the people and to Moses. Understanding comes more easily to us when we learn to listen to and to take the advice of others.

Realize that listening to others does not mean you are allowing others to run your life.  It simply means you are smart enough to allow others to help you see more about your life and others.

Not listening to others smarter than you will leave you to only listen to yourself. When you only listen to yourself or to those you believe are not as smart as you, there will be no way for you to correct yourself when you give yourself bad advice.

If you are not willing to listen to what others have to say about you, perhaps you should wonder if others should listen to what you have to say about them.

Learn to first listen to the Lord. Then learn to listen to those who are smarter than you are. This will make you smarter than you are.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The Lord test’s you for what you can become more than for what you know.

In all my schooling, I must admit that I never liked to hear the words, “there will be a test on this topic later.”  I don’t know of anyone who really likes to take tests.  Tests mean that you must study, apply yourself, learn, and you must change your ways.  I have never liked that.

In our carnal life, passing our tests is the way we know if we are ready to handle the challenges that will come at us later in life.  Knowledge of the coming test causes us to study and to apply ourselves so we can show what we know about the material we study.

Though we may hate being tested, tests are in many ways good for us.  And in a bigger way, life itself is a test that God gives us.  But unlike our carnal lives, God does not test us for what we have learned; He tests us for what we become because of what we learn.

The book of Psalms has a lot to say about what we can become.  Psalm 139:23-24 says this: “Search me O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

There are many ways and things in life that will test our faith in the Lord. But here in this Psalm are several tests that can help you strengthen your faith and your belief so that you may live a more blessed and fulfilled life with the Lord.

First learn to go before and to live before the Lord always.  Ask Him to continually put you through the “search me” test.  You won’t get a passing or failing grade, but you will get righteous insight from the only One who can accurately search you and tell you the truth about you.  Ask the Lord to search you.

Then ask Him for the “know me” test.  What you learn from what He knows about you will help you change so that you can overcome the things that will surely test who you are and who you should be.  No one knows you better than the Lord.  So ask Him for the “know me test.”

Then comes the “try me” test.  This is where the Lord will help you see where you are strongest and where you are weakest.  He will help you to know yourself a little better than what you will think and say to yourself about yourself.  When He tries you, He will strengthen and refine you where you need it.  Ask Him for the “try me” test.

You will want Him to put you through the “see me” test.  With the see me test, the Lord will put you through the drills of life to see how much of His life He has worked into your life.  He may use marriage, parenthood, humility, service, or even the presence of selflessness in you as see me tests.  Whatever He uses, you will be able to accurately see what He is seeing.

And finally, He will put you through the “lead me” test.  All the tests before will mean little if you do not allow yourself to be put through the test of whether you can be led by someone other than yourself.  When the Lord puts you through the “lead me” test, He promises to be your leader.  But the lead me test will also reveal if you will be able to lead yourself so that you can follow when you should follow.

The test with the Lord is not whether you will pass or fail.  The test is whether you will allow yourself to be tested and strengthened in His ways more than in the ways of your own.

Lord, test my heart, test my anxieties, test my ways and test my submission to Your leadership so that I may be led in the way everlasting.  This is a test we should gladly want to take.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The more the Lord reveals to you about yourself the more you will know the Lord!

How great is little we know about Him?

Scripture says this in Psalm 71:19, “Also, Your righteousness, O God, is very high.  You have done great things; O God, who is like You?”  These are the words of King David. He is having one of those moments where he is exclaiming to himself and before God, how great God is.

We should all want those moments in our lives.  The more we learn about Him the more we come to see just how little we know about Him.  It is cause for us to try to tell ourselves just how great and awesome He is.  David was doing that before Him.

Have we stood before our prayers and asked ourselves out loud, Lord, who is like You?”  This is not a question as much as it is a declaration of just how great God is about the things we do not know about Him.

God loves those moments when we declare to Him how vast is the lack of knowledge we have of Him. When we have those moments, all we can do is to say, “Who is like You?”  Nobody. Nobody is as awesome; nobody is as holy; nobody is as majestic; nobody is as powerful; nobody is as wonderful as is the Lord our God.

But even more is how awesome are the things we still do not know.  Have you ever been so amazed at how much you thought you knew of the Lord only to learn that it is impossible to even think of how much you know because that is overshadowed by just how little you know?

Think about this. Ponder this. We cannot know more about the Lord because our minds cannot hold the knowledge there is about Him.  But the way we can know more of Him is to realize how little we know of ourselves. God wants to tell us more about ourselves than we know. Allowing Him to reveal more about us to us is the best way for us to know more about Him.

There is no one like Him. He is the One. When there is a question that cannot be answered, He can answer it. When we don’t know what question to ask, He can ask. When we cannot decide on what to decide, He will guide us to the right decision.

David is saying to God, of all that I know of you, I am still left to exclaim, Who is like You?” We can find all the words we can find, to say what we know and how we feel, but to acknowledge the greatness of what we don’t know is better.  Who is like You Lord?

Matthew 7:29 says there was a time Jesus taught the people.  When He was done scripture says this is how the people responded.  “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes.”

The people were saying who among us is like this Man? No one. For He spoke not to teach us about something He knew like the scribes do daily.  He did not teach us about what we did not know about the commandments. He opened to us what we did not know about ourselves.

How did He do that?  No one else has ever done such a thing as that.  If you want to have a deeper relationship with the Lord, consider doing what the people did in Matthew in response to Him and what David did in acknowledgement of Him.

Teachers teach but the Lord transforms.  Teachers show but the Lord involves.  Teachers tell but the Lord reveals. Who is like You Lord?  Who?

Let this be your prayer someday. Lord, Who is like You? Of all the things I know of You, it is nothing compared to the things about me that I know that You want to reveal to me and to involve me and to transform me.  Help me to learn to allow Your Word to read the book of my life to me.  Help me to see what You see in me when You read my life.

When you ask for this in prayer, the Lord will show you more of Who He is by showing you more of who you really are.  And yes, indeed, what you didn’t know will be greater, for each time you learn more about Him you learn that there is so much more about yourself that you do not know.

He loves that we acknowledge Him in this way. For indeed, Who is like Him?  Who can accurately read our lives to us and tell us what He knows about us that we don’t even know?  Nothing that calls itself a god is like our God.  Who is like You Lord?  No One!

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

Do not go into the New Year carrying baggage from the old year

Exodus 12:2 says this.  “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Sometimes we can have the start of a thing but there is no end to a previous thing.  We can start a fire when there was no fire before.  But then there are times when something new happens because something old ends.  This is the way the Lord wants us to view our lives, especially with Him.

The beginning of the year means the end of the current year.  The Lord does not expect us to show up at the beginning of the year with our luggage full of the things we used and needed for the year before.  The New Year is a new year. Many of us find it difficult to enjoy what is new because we keep trying to relive our old ways in the old year again and again.

In fact, most people find that things never change for them because they will not stop trying to live like they did yesterday.  You may put a new car in your old garage, but you do not drive a new car like you drove the old car.  They are not the same.

So, the first day of the New Year 2025 is upon us.  And like times of old, the Lord wants to remind us that this will be the first day of the first month of the year.  Exodus 12:2 was the time of the first Passover.  God was saying to the Israelites, tomorrow you will start a new life in a new way.  You must leave this old life behind you.  You cannot take your life in Egypt with you into your New Life.

He wanted them to know that the way you enter the New Year will determine the way you live each day of the new year.  That was a great revelation then and it is a great revelation for us now.  Sometimes we cannot enjoy the new because we will not let go of the old.

Jesus said something similar when He said you do not put new wine into old wine skins. He was saying if you put new great tasting wine into an old wine container the new wine will take on some of the taste of the old wine still caught in the old wine skin.  You ruin the new wine that way.

So, as we look to the New Year let us encourage ourselves to make sure we are leaving the remnants of our old lives behind.

It is hard to have a joyful life if you hang onto your old sad life.  It’s hard to have a satisfied life when you won’t leave a gluttonous life behind. It is hard to have a life of peace when you will not leave a life of fighting and anger behind.  It is hard to have a life of quiet when you leave an open mouth behind you.

In life there is a principle of addition and subtraction.  I find that people cannot enjoy more success or better things because they always want to add something great to their lives while keeping everything else about their lives the same.

Sometimes you must subtract bad habits from your life before you can add better habits to your life. The New Year is an opportunity for you to enter something new because you leave something old.  It is an opportunity to subtract some of your old ways so that you can enjoy the better ways God has planned for you in the New Year.

Psalm 31 is a simple Psalm of Trust in the Lord.  It says “Lord my heart is not proud.  Nor are my eyes set on lofty things.  Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.  Surely, I have calmed and quieted my soul.  Like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.”

As you start the New Year.  Start it in humility of life.  Don’t look forward to high and lofty things but look for something new.  Do not be too concerned with the things that were great last year but focus on being as great in the New Year as you can be.  Last year things may have gotten you excited but go into the New Year with a quiet soul, controlling what you can control and leaving all else to the Lord.

Hope in the Lord for a great year.  That is most all you need.  And remember the Israelites.  The first month of their New Year came when God had delivered them from their bondage in Egypt.  Like that, learn to leave the bondage of your life last year behind and live like the Lord has delivered you to a new life in a new year.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

From Savior to baby Jesus to Savior – Merry Christmas

This is my message for Christmas 2024.

Luke 2:10-11 says this.  “Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news 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.”

The angel is speaking to shepherds who were frightened at his presence.  So, the angel calmed their fears by telling them if they were willing to receive it as such, he had news that would make them happy.

You know a bit more of the news.  The baby Jesus was born the day the angels showed up. This was good news because it fulfilled a prophesy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.  Until that time, no other baby born to man was given a name that represented as much as does the name Jesus.  That was good news indeed.

There were some wise men who followed Jesus’ star and came to Jerusalem looking for Him so they could worship Him.  The shepherds were visited by an angel and the wise men saw the star of Jesus.  All of this was good news indeed.  So, they all set out to find the baby Jesus and to worship Him.

But for some people Jesus’ birth was troubling news.  And today, for some of us, the news of Jesus is still troubling.  This was troubling not because He was born of a virgin, but that He was born at all.

In the book of Matthew 2: 1-12, it says:

King Herod and many other leaders in Jerusalem were troubled when they heard that several wise men were in Jerusalem looking for Jesus so they could worship Him.  So, Herod sought them out, to speak with them so he could learn where Jesus was so he could kill the baby.

Herod did not want competition for the service of the people and other people in power wanted to keep the people living in fear of them rather than in the joy of a savior.  They were troubled indeed at the birth of a baby and what He would mean to the world.

Scripture says, Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem to confirm that the baby Jesus was there.  He told them to let him know so he could come and worship the baby also.  But the wise men were warned that Herod was troubled, and he was up to trouble for Jesus.

They found Jesus in Bethlehem.  They gave Him gifts and worshipped Him.  And they went back to their homes a different way than they came.  They were overjoyed.  They did not tell Herod anything.

We have no reason to be troubled.  But we have much to be overjoyed about with the birth of Jesus.

You see, the baby Jesus had to be born of a virgin, or we would not have had the Lord Jesus.  He was God living as a human among men.  The baby Jesus now the Lord Jesus.

The Lord Jesus had to live and walk among men in a perfect way, or we would not have had the persecuted and sacrificial, Jesus Son of God. Because Jesus turned people from themselves and from others toward God, He was viewed as a threat and so He was persecuted.  Still, He lived a sin free life which He sacrificed for you and me.  The Lord Jesus now Jesus, Son of God.

Jesus, Son of God had to be crucified and put to death, or we would not have had to resurrected Jesus.  He was a sin free sacrifice to God for the sins that you and I commit each day.  He paid a debt we could never pay. Jesus, Son of God now the resurrected Son.

The resurrected Son of God had to ascend back to heaven and to God, or we would not have the Savior we know and have in Jesus Christ.  His resurrected life is the redemptive life and savior required to make it possible for us become children of God.

Our savior then had to be born. He had to live.  He had to be persecuted. He had to die.  And He had to be resurrected, or we would have no reason to find joy at the birth of baby Jesus.  None of this is a reason to be troubled.  It is a reason to be overjoyed.

So, when the shepherds got to Bethlehem and the wise men saw the star hovering over where the baby Jesus was, it is said they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  They had a Merry Christmas moment!

So, let us be like the shepherds and the wise men.  This is a time of the year where we can let go of all that troubles us.  Let’s look within ourselves to hear the voice of the angel and to find the star of Jesus.

Jesus’ voice will be in our hearts and His star will be hovering over our hearts because that is the place where He lives today.  Let’s rejoice with exceedingly great joy and shout to ourselves “this is indeed a Merry Christmas because I have found Him whom Herod wanted to harm.”

Let us give Him the gift of our worship as we accept the gift of His life to us as our Savior.

Merry Christmas to you all. 

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

Living without inner reflection usually leads to living in rebellion to the ways of the Lord.

In the animated Disney Movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” the evil witch says, “Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” The mirror responds, “Snow White is a thousand times fairer than you.” When you look into a mirror it will reflect your image.  When you talk to a mirror it will respond with the facts it has seen.

The witch wanted the facts to reflect her image.  She was mistaken.  A mirror can only reflect what it sees or what it has seen. A mirror will see you just as you are not as you want to be.  If you want to be seen as a fair person, you must live like a fair person.  But many of us today are like the witch here. We want to be seen in favorable terms no matter how we live.

Without the ability to reflect on ourselves, we will oppose anything that is contrary to how we want to be seen. What is right is what is right.  What is good is what is good.  What is fair is what is fair.  When you live in opposition to or in rebellion against these things, you come to live by your own standards and rules, and you want others to live by your views also.

Eventually you lose the capacity to see, to understand or even to comprehend what is right from what you have made to be right for you.  Ezekiel 12:2 says this.  “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.”  The Lord was not happy with the people because they did not see themselves as He saw them.

When we ignore the truths and facts and try to live with our own truths, we become rebellious against what is true so that we can have what we want.  People who live in a rebellious state see but they do not understand, and they hear but they cannot comprehend.

We can see these people today. Their lives are dulled against receiving the truths of life. They do not even see their rebellion as rebellion because what they see and feel seems so right to them. When they look into the mirror, they see how great they are and how inferior and rebellious others are.

Have you considered that we may be living in a rebellious house today? When we no longer want to listen to and hear and understand what God says, He will give us over to our own thinking.  He refers to this as having a depraved mind (Romans 1:28).  A depraved mind is one that is given over to morale corruption.  It loses its ability to discern what is right from what it desires.

A depraved mind is not a threat to God’s Word, but it is a threat to us as people.  Consider that today it seems that more of us no longer know what a boy or a girl is. The mirrors we use today tell us what we want to hear and see. When we are in a rebellious state we look into the mirror and it says to us, you are the fairest of them all. Even the mirror is depraved – it is absent the ability to see as God has ordained things to be seen.

When we live in a rebellious state for long periods of time, we lose the ability to be introspective or to reflect on ourselves.  We cannot look at ourselves and even ask “is it me?” We cannot ask if we may be wrong.  We cannot ask if we may be on the opposite side of what is right.  When we are in a rebellious state, we have nothing that comes back to us saying this is who you truly are.

God gives us free will but that doesn’t mean we are right and true in all the things we freely choose to believe and to do. When we are in a rebellious state we see with the eyes of our wants; we hear with the ears of what we want to hear; and we empathize with the things that don’t go the way we believe they should.  We live in our flesh and not in our spirits.

Sadly, we cannot know God’s Word when we are in a rebellious state. Scripture says we lose the ability to understand and to discern the real truths around us. As long as we are in a rebellious state, the Lord will keep spiritual knowledge, insight and understanding from us. We become like the witch who couldn’t see who she was because she could not look at herself to hear herself.

You may be in a rebellious state if you find that you never ask yourself, what is going on with me? Or if you never ask yourself, is mine the right view or position? If you never find yourself saying I may be wrong, you make it hard to be better.

If you say this is what God’s Word says to me, you may be in a rebellious state.  If you can say this is what God’s Word says about me, you are one of the few who can see yourself just as God sees you. When you cannot be introspective you can’t know when you are fooling yourself. You look into the mirror to see if God agrees with you. Here is the order of things. God does not agree with our positions. We must agree with His.

When you cannot be introspective, you want His Word to be subject to your views.  When you try to find ways to show that your position is supported by the position God has taken, you are in rebellion. God will leave you alone to your mind when this happens. God does not support our positions; we must be supportive of His.

God has a position on same sex marriage, and He has a position on your view of same sex marriage.  Think about that. When we are in a depraved state of mind, we spend more time trying to get God to accept our views because we are darkened to what are His views.

It takes insights to discover the deep spiritual things God has reserved for us.  A spiritual issue can never be solved with a carnal response. And a carnal problem usually demands a spiritual solution. Rebellion is to reject the spiritual truths needed in our carnal lives.

Stop and consider what you are thinking; think about your thinking.  Ask yourself what am I doing?  Ask yourself if you are living in rebellion to God?  I’m not talking about a single thing, but as a total way of living. 

If you do this, the Lord may help you see if you are in a rebellious state.  When He frees you from that state, you will be able to live with the reflections we all have when the Word of God says to us “this is what I find in you.”  Living without reflection is rebellion against what God has ordained for your life.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The attitude in which you do things is seen more vividly than the things in which you do.

Loving others means we will be willing to walk the path of love no matter the path others take with us.  This is hard for many of us because we believe we know people who will take advantage of the good we do for them.  We believe they will waste the good we do for them.  We walk in love not because we expect love in return but because that is how Christ walks with us.

Jesus has no limits to His love for us.  He has no conditions for loving each and every one of us.  The more of us He loves, the greater He is towards more of us.  I learned for myself some years ago that I needed to renew my mind and the way I thought about loving others and the things I do towards others.

I had a little attitude toward others.  You know it.  The one that says, I’ve given enough, now it’s time for you to give.  You know it, the one that says everyone should do right just as I was trying to do right.  You know it, the one that says I will forgive but I don’t have to forget.  And I emphasized the I don’t have to forget part.

But people saw through my acts to my attitude.  My good was seasoned with an attitude of pride and condemnation.  I was foolish.  That’s why I realized I needed to renew my mind so I could open my heart to others the way the Lord keeps His heart open to me.

Romans 14:16 says this.  “Let not your good be evil spoken off” (Romans 14:16).  Do you ever wonder what others say about the good you try to do?  I’m not asking you to start worrying about what others say.  Some people will say mean things about anything you do.  We know that.

But you should do the good in such a way that others would say to the Lord, “I saw the hand of Your work in the things he or she did for me.”  That is what they should say about your good.  But more importantly, the Lord is others should talk about when you do your good towards them.

When you have that mindset, it will change the way you are towards others and if you change your ways, you will change the things you do so that they are the good that comes from Him who is good.  We are not to use our status as redeemed children of the Lord to tear down the lives of others.  When Jesus takes up home in our hearts our nature is changed to do good always.

Serve then without an attitude.  Love without an attitude.  Be patient then without an attitude.  Give without an attitude.  Never let your good be served in unhealthy ways.  The characteristics of our Christian behavior are righteousness, peace, joy and love in the Holy Spirit.  When we exhibit these things in a spirit of love, our good deeds will be seen as of God and not as of man.

We are blessed to know God’s righteousness; we are not to use His righteousness to speak poorly of anyone.  We are blessed to know the peace of God; we are not to use the peace God gives to bring division among those still bound to the world.  We are blessed to know the joy of fellowship with the Holy Spirit; we are not to use this joy to promote ourselves.

The good we do must give revelation to the good that God is.  Good deeds are the result of our hearts wanting to pour the light and salt of God into the world.  But we must use God’s goodness in the right portions.  Too much salt spoils the meat; instead of good, it becomes evil spoken of.

Listen to the Holy Spirit as He guides your behavior in all things.  He wants to give you good things to do but without a vindictive attitude.  When this happens others will receive your good deeds as the glorious grace of God at work in their circumstances.

So, let your good deeds be highly spoken of because you have an attitude of goodness about you. Learn to serve without an attitude.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The bigger the battle you face for the Lord, the bigger the Lord becomes for your battle.

The bigger our problems the less we should battle. That is my message for today.

1 Samuel 17:4 describes the size of Goliath.  It says this. “And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.”  Now a cubit was about 18 inches.  And a span was roughly 6 inches.  By the way we measure today, Goliath then was roughly 9 feet and six inches tall.

 I’m sure everyone who saw Goliath saw an imposing man.  A giant.  Larger probably than any man they had ever seen. But David wasn’t bothered by Goliath’s size.  David knew something Goliath didn’t know.  He knew that Goliath was an imposing enemy for men; but Goliath would not be fighting a man that day.  He would be battling God.

David knew there would be no battle between David and Goliath.  Goliath was not David’s problem; he was not the Israelites problem.  He was God’s enemy.  And the Lord will always fight His own battles.  We are never asked to fight His battles.  He is His own champion.  He is His own warrior.  He is His own Army. 

God doesn’t need to wage war with anyone.  And a battle – well it is just a small fight within a larger fight between enemies.  David knew he was only a soldier in the Army of the Lord.  He also knew and recognized that this was the Lord’s battle, so he was careful not to make it his own.  While David realized he did not have a problem, Goliath did not see the problem he was facing.

Goliath and all the Philistines could see that he was an opposing figure much bigger than anyone of the Israelites.  It wasn’t likely that any one of them could defeat him.  Goliath was a champion who had never lost.  He was itching for a battle. But we know that Goliath met his death the day he challenged David.  He was a big problem looking for a little battle.

We can learn some things from how David faced the situation with Goliath.  You see, the bigger your problems seem to be, the less likely you should feel like it is a battle for you.  The Lord has no size.  He cannot be measured in feet or in inches.  He has no height nor any weight.  If you believe you are facing a big problem, it’s a good bet the battle you face is one for the Lord.

We should have this confidence that David had.  He had killed both a lion and a bear with just his hands.  He was confident he could prevail against a giant like Goliath.  Still, David wasn’t stupid.  He knew the battle with Goliath was the Lord’s and not his own.

Goliath probably thought David was a loser. But Goliath didn’t realize that David was a soldier in the Army of the Lord.  And like David, we should see ourselves as soldiers in His Army.  When we do, we are blessed in that the Lord fights His own battles through us.

We may be seen as sure losers, but we never lose.

The lions and the bears we face probably think we are just small bites for their lunch.  But when we allow the Lord to fight His battles that we face, we may be fearful, but we never fear.

When we allow the Lord to fight His battles, we may grow tired but we are never tired out.

When we allow the Lord to fight His battles, we may trip but we never fall.  We may be knocked down, but we are never knocked out.  We may look small, but we are larger than how we look.

The bigger what seems to be our problems, the bigger the Lord acts in our lives.  When we allow Him to fight His battles that we are privileged to face, He shows Himself to be bigger than the biggest thing we have ever seen.  He is stronger than the strongest thing we have ever faced.  He is beyond the comprehension of anything we have ever understood.

If you are facing what seems like a giant problem today just remember, the Lord just wants us to let Him fight the battles we face. The bigger our problems; the bigger our Lord.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.