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Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Belief and Trust. Belief confirms you; Trust transforms you.

Hebrews 11:6: “For without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is.”

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”

Many of you may remember what the letters “WWJD” stand for – (What Would Jesus Do).  This little phrase became popular in faith circles some years ago back in the 1990’s.  Many of us may even have trinkets emboldened with WWJD letters. I am not personally a fan of such things, but we can use this one to help us see that as believers we must both believe in the Lord, and we must Trust in the Lord.

Belief and Trust are not the same.  To be saved we must first believe that the Lord is exactly Who He says He is. Any relationship with the Lord God starts with our belief in Him. This must be a convicting sense of knowledge deep down in our souls. This conviction says to us that we believe that He is, not because of anything He has done.

We must have a believing relationship because that is how we come to a saving relationship. We believe He is because He says He is. That is sufficient. But to enjoy a saving relationship with the Lord, we must come to a trusting relationship with Him.

Trust in the Lord is something we learn because we believe in the Lord. While believing says we know who He is and we believe that; trust says we place all our confidence in knowing that He can and He will do all that He says He will do.

Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that we must believe that He is God; Proverbs 3:5-6 encourages us to put our confidence in Him and not in anything else, especially ourselves.  While you can use WWJD as a reminder to try to make faith-based decisions about your life, it takes belief and trust to transform your life to a faith-based life where the things you do are simply a byproduct of who you are in Christ and Who He is in you.

So, learn not to be wise and knowledgeable in your own eyes and for your own life.  Do not use faith in the Lord to glorify your carnality. Even the devil knows about the Lord, but this doesn’t change who the devil is. Be careful not to lean to your own understanding and still remain unchanged by what you understand.

Fear the Lord and leave all the things that would make it difficult for you to believe in Him because you still believe more in yourself. Never allow yourself to confess a belief in the Lord because you believe it is fashionable to say you believe. When your belief is sure, your profession of belief will come from a new you.  It will be seen in you before it is professed by you.

It is a good thing to ask yourself WWJD in your circumstances.  This will help you learn how to think about what you face.  But perhaps more importantly, reflect on Who Would Jesus Be (WWJB) in any circumstance.  Then ask Him to help you to have the belief and the trust to be transformed from who you are to be more of who He wants you to be.

Belief gets you the relationship with the Lord that will save you.  Trust gets you the confidence in the Lord that will enrich you.  Who Would Jesus Be (WWJB) gets you the life of the Lord that can transform you.

Life a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. He gave what we never asked for but we always needed.

Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a Child is born.  Unto us a Son is given.  And the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Luke 2:11: “for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

I have met many people who believe their lives are complete and they do not need anything. You may have a parent or spouse or even a friend who says they do not need anything because their lives are complete. But life is not complete by what you have as much as it is completed by what you give. For instance, if you don’t believe you need love it will be difficult for you to give love.

Christmas and what it means is God’s way of saying to us He would show His love towards us even if we say we do not need to be loved. God knows that we all need a savior even if we don’t all recognize that we do. The birth of Christ is God’s way of saying He gave each of us what we needed even when we may not believe we need anything at all.

There are many reasons God is this way towards us, but the primary reason is sin, and the impact sin will have on our eternal lives. But we have a problem with sin. We cannot understand what it means to be free from sin until we understand how we are naturally bound to sin.

To fully understand what Christmas means to us, we must understand sin, and life and the role Christ play in all that. Part of this understanding is found in His names by which Christ is called.

He is called Wonderful because He brings to us the purest sense of Knowledge and of Wisdom. We cannot know what is bad until we can know what Wonderful is. Man typically uses only worldly knowledge by which to live but this can mislead us more than it can help us.

Christ brings to us Divine Knowledge and Wisdom which is needed for us to understand how we ought to live our lives. This Christmas understand that Christ comes to you as all things Wonderful. This way you will be able to recognize the things that are not.

He is called Counselor because He alone can have conversations with us that reveal the deepest insights and can edify us so that our souls are touched and set afire to live better. He counsels us with Truth so that we are not easily misled by lies. This Christmas unwrap your Counselor and let Him talk with you.

He is called the Everlasting Father because He was before us, He lives with us during our humanity and He will be with us in our transition to eternity. And though our earthly fathers will all die, Christ will always be. He is an Everlasting Father who will love us in an everlasting way. He is the Father who never dies. This Christmas go live with your Everlasting Father.

He is called the Prince of Peace because He gives us the ability to fight and win the battle to save us from being slaves to sin. While this does not mean we will never sin again, He gives us the ability to always be at peace with what things we have and with what things we lack so that we cannot be made slave to sin when it comes and offers to us what things it believes we want.

So, this Christmas Day, remember that Christ means you have a life manual to help you learn how to live. You no longer need to live as if you do not understand why you are here.

A Child was born and a Son was given to us long ago. The very Son of God. He was crucified and raised from death. On a day like today long ago, He came to us.  Because of that we were all given privilege through Him to be crucified in our flesh and to be raised to life in Him.

So, let this Christmas be the start of your journey to understand why Christ came, why you are here and why its important for you to accept, not just the gift of Christ, but to also accept what the gift means to your life today and to your eternal life to come.

You need the gift that Christmas represents.  Don’t think that you don’t.

Halleluiah Christmas to you.

Life a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you that matter most.

Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.  Before you were born, I sanctified you.”

Exodus 6:7: “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.”

Exodus 33:17: “So the Lord said to Moses, I will do this thing that you have spoken for you have found grace in My sight and I know you by name.”

Many of us build our relationship with the Lord on the idea that we know Him. That is good but have you ever asked yourself does God know me?” There is a time in scripture where Jesus says to some who called themselves His followers, “I never knew you, depart from Me you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23).

Lawlessness is not just a breach of the law. Lawlessness is a condition where we turn from the ways of God toward the ways of man. It is a state where our love for the Lord grows cold and our desires for ourselves grow hot. Lawlessness starts more easily when we see our relationship with the Lord as one where we proclaim that we know Him.

But it is better that our relationship with the Lord centers on the fact that He knows us.  Moses knew that God knew him. This gave Moses the confidence to reject the lawless ways of the world and to live as best he could for the things of God.

It should give us great comfort to know that God knows each of us.  It is an amazing thing to know that before we were even in the womb that God knew us.  This means that before our parents came together and before the sperm met the egg, God knew everything about us.

When our relationship with the Lord is based on the fact that we know Him, we can only speak of who we know Him to be.  But when our relationship with Him is based on the fact the He knows us, we can speak of His knowledge of us and of our knowledge of Him.

When we know Him, we speak of what we know about Him.  But when God knows us, He speaks to others about us.  We see this when God speaks to the devil about Job.  He says to satan, have you considered My servant Job?  God was saying to satan, I know Job inside and out.

When we speak of knowing the Lord we speak of His characteristics.  He is Love.  He is merciful.  He is longsuffering.  He is patient.  He is full of grace.  But this says little about who we are.  And even satan would know the things that we know about the Lord.

But when God speaks about knowing you and I, He speaks about who we are.  You are faithful; you are blameless.  You are honorable.  You are upright.  You are fearful and you run from evil.  We can say these things about ourselves, and hope others see and believe them or the Lord can say these things about us and we will know that others will accept them.

So, stop building your spiritual resume just about the things you know about the Lord.  It is important to know Him, but it is more important that He knows you. When you build your relationship with Him on what you know, you must rely on your own character and knowledge to be as accurate as you portray. You must speak for yourself.

Live instead in such a way that the Lord Himself would testify to knowing who you are and how you live. Because what God says about you will carry with it the value of His character and of Who He is. He speaks about you so that you don’t have to speak for yourself.

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. People will understand more accurately who you are when God tells them of who He knows you to be.

Life a Delivered Life.

The Lord’s insight. Carnality is in the old you; godliness can only live where carnality has died.

Colossians 3:9-10: “You have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.”

I’m ashamed to say that there have been times when I have looked at my life with Christ, and I see no difference in the life I lived without Him. I guess the old me just won’t go away. When we see more of who we are than who we should be perhaps its because we have not shed our old persons so the new person can come forth.

I am reminded of how things unfolded on the old TV program Superman. When Superman the human saw a crime being committed, he would step aside into a quiet place and change into his superman life, cape and all. In a way, he shed his old life for his Super-human life. People always remembered Superman; they never knew the human he was.

Who he was and where he came from was a mystery to the people.  He stopped crime.  That is what people saw and remembered.  None of this would have happened had he not shed his old life for his life with superpowers. Often, we find it difficult to know the new life because we want to do new things with the old life.

But it doesn’t work that way. We are reminded of this in Colossians 3:9-10. We cannot be renewed while we hold onto the old. The Lord doesn’t put polish on our old lives to make us look like we are something different.  He makes us something different, so we don’t look like we used to look.

But this is a hard thing for us to understand.  In some ways, it is a great mystery to even the most faithful of us because we cannot know where we can change or where we might find the cape that would show we are new. Well, you don’ need an empty room to change from your old to your new.

Godliness and a Godly life do not come from your human life.  It comes to the new life the Lord redeemed for you; the life waiting for you to claim.  You need only to understand you must shed the old so that the new can come forth.

If you are fighting the crime around you; if you are fighting the sin within you; if you don’t even recognize the crime and sin in and around you, perhaps its because you have not shed your old life. When Superman stepped out into the world in his cape there was no crime or no person who could defeat him.  He lived a superhuman life.

If you want to stop living life as a fleshly neighbor to the stronger things around, you then you must learn the mystery of shedding the old and putting on the new.  Pray and ask the Lord to reveal these things to you:

• Jesus came and was manifested in the flesh.  He must be manifested in your life. He makes you new.
• He was justified by the Spirit.  The Spirit told people around Him that He was God.  Pray that the Spirit would justify before others your transformation from an old life of flesh to a life in the Spirit.
• Jesus was seen by angels who announced it to the world. Pray that the Spirit would have people see that you are a new person.  They will announce it to their world.
• Jesus was preached to the world.  When you shed your old life, you will be able to shut your mouth because the world will preach your transformation more than you have to announce your transformation.

And if right now your old self is telling you that you don’t really need to die to the person you are, you should tell that person to shut up.  You will never know the person God wants you to be when you know the person you are better.  Shedding your old life is one of the single most profound acts of belief you can have in the Lord.

It means you trust that He knows the person He wants you to be is better than the person you know yourself to be. Agree with Him about that.  Go into your private place and shed that old person.  Step out into the same old world but as a new creation, dressed in the Spirit of the Lord and walking as a light in the darkness all around you.

Life a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Believers do not need authority to live faithfully.

Mark 11:28: “And they said to Him, by what authority are You doing these things?”

Matthew 7:28-29: “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, and not as the scribes.”

With our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution includes what is referred to as the Bill of Rights.  It says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What is this idea of unalienable rights? Well, the word means something that is inherent to the person.  It cannot be taken away or denied.  It cannot be transferred; it cannot be refuted with human facts. Unalienable means it’s just you.  Life, liberty and happiness are inherently ours.  No one can give them, and no one can take them away.

When God said to Moses tell them “I Am” sent you God was saying I am unalienable.  God spoke as God about God. Jesus revealed to the people His unalienable Being.  He spoke of himself more than He taught what He knew. Jesus revealed Himself; the scribes taught what they learned about the Law.

A chemistry teacher may teach you about chemistry, but a chemist would reveal himself to you and by that you would learn chemistry. The chemist has unalienable authority because he shares himself so that you learn about what he knows. The chemistry teacher has learned about chemistry.  So, this gives the teacher knowledge authority. 

The teacher could be a bar tender who shares what he has learned about chemistry as a teacher. We don’t know what the scribes were who shared what they had learned. Jesus was not bartender.

It is important to understand this difference. There is a spiritual battle that goes on between the things that are unalienable or inherent and the things that are learned and man promoted.  It has been this way since Jesus’s time here and it’s that way today.

Since there was no law to argue against the things Jesus said and did, the scribes and the pharisees wanted to know who gave Jesus the authority to do the things He was doing. They questioned Him so they could find reason to take away His authority. You see, authority and power and status always want to keep authority and power and status.

You must learn to recognize the thoughts and ways of the scribes and the pharisees around you today. They would have you give up what is inherently right for you so you can buy into what they promote. You are a child of God because of your belief and faith in Christ. That is now your inherent nature.

To prove obedience to the law, the pharisees made it unlawful to carry your bedding on the sabbath day. You do not need to prove your faith to man by buying into what man says would accurately show your faith and life of a believer. To do that would be contrary to what is unalienable to us. The authority to be a believer is inherent in who you are.

When you were born, the first words spoken to describe you were probably “look, you have a son or daughter, a boy or a girl.” Doctors knew this because they saw some unalienable things about boys and girls that are unchangeable.  You were given a name based on these unalienable characteristics that were clearly visible the moment you were born.

Man wants to promote the man-view on many things that are inherent to us. They do this, just as the scribes and pharisees did, because it gives them status over others. Believers want to be like Jesus, but we don’t know how to react to man’s ways when it comes to our inherent rights and character given to us by God.

We want to be like Jesus, but we learn to live like today’s scribes and pharisees. Instead of knowing who we are, we allow the worldview to define and describe how we as believers ought to act and to behave.

If you are a believer, you are a child of God.  You don’t need any other validation to make that true. A nonbeliever can walk like you; can talk like you; can sing like you; and many other things they can do like you. But being a believer should be the inherent and unalienable reason you walk the way you walk.

Learn to recognize the battle that is going on in and around you.  Fight the ways of today’s scribes and pharisees with the inherent unalienable things that make you a child of God.  Don’t be taught to believe what is not inherent by those who challenge what is inherent to you.

You don’t need to come to believe that we have progressed to the point where we can believe marriage can be between anything other than a man and a woman. There are many things that will change over time, but there are many inherent things that time solidifies. Even if you have friends who may think otherwise, you must fight within yourself to stand for what is unalienable and never for authority.

God has given you many unalienable characteristics that make you like Him.  Don’t throw these away for something that makes you more like man. We can be sensitive and caring about how others feel even if they are confused. But we must not be confused by what others say and feel thereby giving up our unalienable and inherent nature that God has given us.

We need no authority from man to be the children of God He wants us to be.

Live A Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Focus on the Lord to see yourself as you really are.

Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.”

Isaiah 56:1-2: “Thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness.  For My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness is about to be revealed.  Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it.”

During Noah’s time, scripture says the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thought of man’s heart was only to do evil continually.  The Lord was sorry He made man – well everyone but Noah.  Noah it is said “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8).

When we look around today, we should wonder about the things we do as people. We didn’t live in Noah’s time but part of me believes Noah would have pulled his hair out at some of the things we do.  We don’t just have wicked thoughts and ideas; we turn what is right into what we call evil.

 Now we wouldn’t say our own thoughts are wicked or evil.  But we would quickly say yours are.  We wouldn’t say we are wrong about much, but we would quickly point out how wrong you are.  We do this because we don’t look within to learn how to see out. We use what we see outwardly in others to make others reflect on how bad they must be within.

I don’t believe this is the Way of the Lord. If we really want to see others as they are, we must learn to focus on seeing ourselves the way the Lord sees us. The thoughts we have should be the thoughts He has but this is not so for many of us.  The ways we go about life are not the Way He goes about life.

The Lord’s perspective about Himself and about us is different from our perspectives about Him and ourselves.  Perspective is more than what we think; it is the way we think about the things we think about. Seeing clearly is different for the Lord and for us.

The Lord cleans our heart and our minds so we can see clearly what is before us. But we will spend all our time trying to clean what is before us using an unclean heart and mind.  His ways and thoughts are not ours.  Faith and belief in the Lord cause the faithful to look within themselves to find understanding for what they see outside of themselves.

With the unbeliever, it’s the opposite. They look at what you are doing to make you see how different and how better they believe themselves to be.  Such a view and perspective bring sorrow to the Lord because we cannot accurately see out until we clean what is within.

If you want to see yourself as you really are, learn to use the heart and eyes of the Lord as the lens for how you look at others. And if you want to see others as they really are, learn to use the heart and lens of the Lord to see what is inside of you.

The Lord knows we do not listen to Him. In fact, we will argue with Him about what He says to keep Him from looking on the things we do and say. This is a twisted way of seeing and believing. I believe one of the reasons we fall to a twisted sense of what is true and right today is because we believe it is more likely others are more wrong than they are right and that we are more right than we are wrong.

But we are not the standard for what is right and wrong. we must stand on what is just – not simply for man, but what the Lord says is Just. Then we must do that which is righteous, not before man, but before the Lord.

Change your perspective and you will be blessed because you will lay hold of the very thing the Lord found in Noah that caused Him to give Noah grace in a time where wrath was what everyone had earned.

Live A Delivered Life.

The Lord’s insight. Being thankful cures us of the disease of selfishness.

1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Thanksgiving is a time of the year where we take time to reflect on life and to show our gratitude for the things we have and even for the hardships kept from us.  It is our way to let God know that we see His hand in all things about and around us.

Being thankful is the one thing that cures all of us from being selfish and self-centered.  It is God’s way of reminding us that we cannot control anything but the things inside of us.  We cannot make it rain; we cannot make it cool; we cannot make our own work to prosper; nor can we cure ourselves from those things that would disease our lives.

However, thankfulness can do what we cannot do.  Being a thankful person can make you love the people Jesus loves; it can make you love giving to the people Jesus wants to give; it can make you boast in the people Jesus boasts about; it can make you obedient to your parents; it can make you become holy; it can make you forgiving; it can make you keep your mouth shut about things that are unwholesome; it can make you love good; it can make you listen and learn; it can make you humble; it can make you love your life no matter your circumstances; and it can make you Love the Lord.

So, this Thanksgiving and everyday hereafter, learn to be thankful in everything. If you do this, you will have started your day doing at least one thing that is in obedience to what God calls for us all to do.

Being unthankful is disrespectful towards God.  It shows a lack of appreciation for the things God does for us that we cannot do. And remember, being unthankful is a quick way to get to the last days; don’t be in a hurry to bring about the end of your time and ours.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. A weak flesh is a strong enemy of the Spirit.

Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Galatians 5:17: For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus asked three of His disciples to sit nearby to watch and to pray while He prayed. He was very sorrowed about what was going to happen. He needed to be strengthened.  Praying is what He did to keep from falling to the temptation that comes with sorrow.

Watch with Me and pray. That was Jesus’ request of three of His disciples.  Lest you enter into temptation was His warning to His disciples.  Jesus knew that the disciples too would be very sorrowful when they saw what was about to happen to Him. He knew the events would cause His disciples to lose hope and to deny Him.

The disciples would have to live with the fact that they denied Him.  So, He explained how our flesh and our spirit fight against one another for control of our lives. But the flesh fights dirty. Your flesh doesn’t say you should fight against the circumstances you face. Our flesh fights so that we have a moment where we feel good. Denying Jesus made them feel good in the moment.  It made them feel safe.

Today, we must learn to watch and to pray.  Watching what is happening around us and praying that the Lord would strengthen us to endure the things we face is the one way we can strengthen our Spirit so that it can help us deny our flesh.

Our flesh does not like surprises; this is one of the reasons the flesh is weak. When we do not get the promotion we wanted at work, we are surprised to learn our boss did not believe we worked hard enough. We must learn to watch how we work. When our family doesn’t want to spend time with us, we are surprised to learn they do not like our attitude.  We must watch and pray.

I thank the Lord that I now recognize that the flesh and the spirit are contrary to one another. When we do not pray to be spiritually strong and confident about the things we watch for, we open ourselves to being hopelessly driven by our flesh. Our flesh wants us to give in, but the Spirit wants to give things over to the Lord.  Our flesh wants us to feel comfortable, but our Spirit wants us to feel confident. Our flesh wants us to believe what we want but our Spirit wants us to want what the Lord says we should believe.

Watch and pray over your children. They will be better for it.  Watch and pray over your marriage.  It will be better for it.  Watch and pray over your leaders. Everyone will be better for it. While the target of the flesh is the self; the flesh is the main target of our Spirit.  Watch and pray so your Spirit can have more dominion over your flesh.

The disciples had told Jesus they were all willing to die for and with Him. But when Jesus was betrayed and arrested, each disciple denied that they even knew Jesus.  Watch what you say.  Pray about what you have spoken so that you do not fall into the temptation to deny what you said.

Everyone has some type of sin we would like to overcome.  Jesus is telling us today in His Word, to watch and pray about the sins you say you will never do. The spirit is willing to walk with you when you say, “Lord, I want to be faithful, help my unfaithfulness.”  The flesh is weak and will fall when you say “Lord, I am faithful and will never be unfaithful.”

Watch and pray so you do not fall into the temptation to be tempted.

Live A Delivered Life.

The Lord gave up His life to God; why can’t we give up our lives to the Lord?

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Give what is dying of your to the Lord and He will bring to life that which death wants of yours.

Mark 15:39: “Truly this Man was the Son of God.”

1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed. 

Scripture says just before Jesus died darkness came over all the earth for about three hours. It says the sun was also darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two pieces. It says Jesus cried out “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

We have a God whose Purpose it is to serve us; He will never stop fulfilling His Purpose.  We know that God is eternal, but it is also reassuring to know there can never be an end to our God so for as long as we live, we need never die to the eternal God that He is. There can never be an end to our God. Jesus didn’t just die; He couldn’t just die.  He gave up His life.

What do I mean by He gave up His life?  Well, His heart didn’t just stop beating. He did not just bleed to death.  His lungs didn’t just fill up with water.  Jesus didn’t just give in to the death He knew was coming.  No, He gave His life to God.

When we speak, we must talk in terms of time and of the things we see before us.  In Mark 15:39 the Centurion said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God.” He said this because he thought the death of Jesus ended the life of Jesus.  So, he spoke of Jesus in past tense.

Our God is an eternal God.  He was, He is, and He is still to come.  What the centurion saw was Jesus finishing what He started by giving His life to God.  Jesus said it this way: “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.” He did this because there can be no end to His life.

He still is! We who are believers must know Him this way.  We who are believers and saved must come to know Him as He is and not as what we think He was.  We can say He died for us, or we can say He gave up His life to God for us.

This is important because it determines the nature of the relationship we can have with the Lord. Because if He died, we would be looking for Him among those who have died.  We would be looking for Him in the tomb where they lay Him.  But He did not die; He gave up His life. He didn’t belong in a tomb.

He still is because God is a God of the living not the dead. Death could not take what Jesus was giving to God.  We can learn from this.  If you want to give your life to the Lord, nothing can keep you from doing that.  If you want to serve Him with all your heart, nothing can keep you from doing that.

Whatever it is of you that you commit to the Lord, He will keep it from anything that would want to kill it.  If your work isn’t going as you would like, commit your work to Him.  He will give life to it.  If your relationship with your spouse is not working as it should, commit your part to Him.  He will make your part work.

He still is a Lord of the now.  He is not simply a Lord of the past.  He still is and because of that, you can know that you still are a child of His when you commit your ways to Him.  The Lord takes what is broken and dying in us and brings it to life and wholeness in Him.

1 Corinthians says, we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.  When we commit that which will die to Him before it dies, He transforms it from dying to living.  Learn to commit your dying things to Him so He can change them by bringing to them life that is new, life that He will never permit to die.  Give up your dying things to Him.

What a mighty God we serve; What a mighty God Who serves us.  He still is so you can still be.  When you give up your life to the Lord, He turns your dying things into living things so that you live on with Him.

Live A Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. The practical affairs we face try to limit the Lord to the spiritual affairs we pursue.

Proverbs 1:1: “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.”

Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

1 Kings 3:9: “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.”

It was a life-changing moment for me when I learned that there was never a moment when the Lord was not with me. It was hard enough for me to learn to live and to be spiritual when at church.  I didn’t realize church was more than just a place I visited on Sundays.

I realized I did not know much about the Lord, and I didn’t know much about myself. I knew just enough about the Lord to be saved.  I didn’t know I needed to then be saved enough to learn how to live with the Lord in all parts of my life.  I made my salvation an event.  Then I made church an event.  I made prayer an event.  I made reading scripture an event.

The problem with events is they happen and then we go on.  I didn’t have the sense to know that I needed to know a lot more than I knew. Nothing in scripture made this clear to me.  Now I know the Word of God cannot be treated like it is a book to read.  It is a Life to know; it is a Life to teach us; it is a Life to guide us.

We have the book of Proverbs to help us understand how to discover and live with the wisdom and knowledge we need to bring the practical aspects of living under submission to our spiritual development and growth.  King Solomon understood this when God asked him to ask what he wanted God to do for him.

Solomon asked for an understanding heart and not money.  He asked for discernment and not talents.  Solomon knew he didn’t know enough to lead himself let alone to lead other people.  We know that God gave Solomon what he asked for and more.  Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs.

I believe he wrote Proverbs so that we would all have access to the wisdom, knowledge and insight we need to live Godly lives in practical ways.  Proverbs 1:1 tells us the proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel given to us so we can:

• Know wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:2).  God wants us to live with wisdom and to be teachable in who we are.
• Perceive the words of understanding (Proverbs 1:2). God wants us to perceive truthful words of understanding that come from sources other than ourselves.
• Receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment and equity (Proverbs 1:3-4). God wants us to learn to accept instructions more than we want to give instruction.  He wants us to learn from knowing and doing what is right more than to learn from bad experiences.
• Give prudence to the simple while we are young (Proverbs 1:4).  He wants us to receive knowledge and discretion (Proverbs 1:4). He wants this to happen before we become rooted in our own ways.

So, we have the Proverbs of Solomon so that we have a source to teach us how we should act, respond, react and live in a world that may not acknowledge God. Proverbs help us learn to draw our conclusions about matters of life from the things the Word teaches us more than from the things man says.

When we learn from wisdom we will know to listen when the Lord tells us “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” The Lord does not want us to exclude Him from the practical affairs of our lives. When we don’t know any better, we cannot live any better.

A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.  Proverbs help you know how little you know about how much more you need to know so that you live like a child of God being taught by the Word of God living in a world searching for the presence of God.

Thank God for giving us the book of Proverbs to be our practical guide and teacher and reminder and source of knowledge so that we can live today with wisdom and insight that would take us a lifetime to gain.

Live A Delivered Life.