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Smarter choices come more easily when you are wise enough to wait for understanding.

The wise and the understanding. That is my message today.

In the book of Daniel, chapter 2:20-21, Daniel praises God by saying, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever.  For wisdom and might are His.  And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.”

Daniel singles out the fact that God does something specific for the wise and for the understanding.  He gives them wisdom and He gives them knowledge. It seems a bit unusual that someone who is already wise and understanding would be given even more.  But that’s exactly what God does.

What makes us wise and understanding is our ability to listen to someone greater than ourselves and to listen to things higher than the things we think of.  Perhaps Daniel is saying, God wants us to first listen to Him and next to listen to people who listen to Him.

If you are only going to listen to yourself, you better make sure you are wise and understanding or you may be listening to foolishness.  And if you are going to listen to others, you better make sure they listen to the One who can make them wise and understanding or you may be listening to the ignorant.

To whom much is given, God gives more.  He does this with those who are the wise and the understanding. So, how do we find these wise and understanding people?  Well, don’t look at what they do, look at who they are. The wise and the understanding are states of being.  They are known for being different, which is the reason the things they do are better than the things we do.

Listening to someone smarter than you are is one of the key attributes of those of us who are wise and understanding.  The wise and the understanding will listen to God more than you and I will listen to Him. Why is this so? Well, it’s because more of us live foolishly with what we know, and we are ignorant of the things we should know.  We lack wisdom and we lack knowledge.

We see our lives primarily consisting of the things we do and not the persons we are. The wise and the understanding are known for their persons; the foolish and the ignorant are known for what they do. The wise and the understanding are listeners for the Lord; they want to hear and to understand.  The foolish and the ignorant are listeners of themselves; they want to be heard and to be understood by others.

Both wisdom and knowledge are needed for the specific moment in time that you are in today.  Wisdom is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do and knowledge is having the awareness of something that you ought not to be aware of yet.

Wisdom and knowledge are more about knowing and understanding yourself better, so that you know and understand other things more. Many of us live failing to realize the things God has reserved for us because we do not live as wise and understanding people.  Just like a parent doesn’t raise a child to be a failure in life, God did not create us to leave us to be failures.

But Daniel made it clear that God does not give His wisdom and knowledge to those of us who are foolish and without understanding. Before David became king of Israel, king Saul tried to kill him because of hatred and jealously. At times, David did not know what to do because he did not know what the next situation with Saul would bring.  But in 1 Samuel 18:14 the bible says, “David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him.”

David may not have known what to do but he knew that he should behave in a way that would not make the situation worse.  He behaved in a way that glorified God and so the glory of God’s goodness was reflected on him.  He was not foolish, as he understood himself so he knew what he could expect from Saul.  David had wisdom and knowledge because he was wise and understanding.

You may be in situations today where you do not know what to do.  You may be praying for an answer to something that is vexing you. Until your answer comes, learn to live wisely and with understanding.  Watch your behavior and wait for the Lord to move before moving and doing anything of your own thinking.

The bible says if you ask the Lord for wisdom He will give it to you.  But now you know that if you live wisely and with understanding, you position yourself to have His gift of wisdom and knowledge more easily.

A wise and understanding person will not make things more difficult while waiting for the knowledge of what to do. Smarter choices come more easily when we are wise enough to wait for understanding. Being wise and understanding will help you make better choices about the things you do, and it will keep you from being foolish and ignorant.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

Because Jesus did not stay dead, believers in Him will not stay dead either.

Mark 16:44-45 says this about Jesus’ death.  “Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time.  So, when he found out from the centurion, He granted the body to Joseph.”

Now, Jesus had been on the cross for just around six hours so this quick death was puzzling to Pilate. To be sure of his death, Pilate asked the Roman Centurion charged with carrying out the crucifixion to confirm that Jesus was dead.  Pilate was saying to himself “dead so soon.  They thought He was a king.”

What Pilate and the Jews who wanted Jesus dead didn’t realize is that Jesus would not stay dead.  They thought His death would be the end of His life just as it was for any other person before Him.  They soon learned how wrong they were. Because on the third day after His death, Jesus got up and walked out of the grave.

Jesus did not stay dead. Why not?  Because nothing that is dead can do the work of something that must be done in life. Jesus had to do the work of Life for you and me, so death could not keep Him from that work.

The Jewish leaders at the time wanted to keep the people discouraged and dependent on the leaders for what hope they could have. They wanted to put a stop to the idea of independence from the law and direct access to God that Jesus was bringing to ordinary people. They claimed He had to be stopped because He was misleading the people to believe in something other than the Jewish laws.

His crucifixion, however, was not the final nail in His life.  His death was the final nail in the door that God had opened so that all who believes in Jesus can always walk through to eternal life.  His death was the final nail needed to keep something open more than to keep something closed.  The Jewish leaders thought that killing Jesus would solve all their problems.  The only problem with this thinking is that Jesus did not stay dead.

In Isaiah 42, God tells us of His plan for Jesus.  He refers to Jesus as His Servant whom He upholds and as His Elect One in whom His soul delights.  He says He has put His Spirit upon Jesus.  And He says Jesus will bring forth justice to the gentiles.  Jesus did not stay dead because He had the eternal work of life to do for us.

The religious leaders of the time got things wrong about Jesus and life just as we do today. They attempted to break what could not be broken and they attempted to fix what they could not fix.

By killing Him they thought they would:

• Silence Him.  They did not realize that Jesus would come to life in the hearts and minds and voices of every believer and that the rocks would cry out in praise of Him.  The voice of One became the voice of a multitude that could not be counted.

• Discredit Him.  They wanted to prove Him to be an imposter and not a Savior.  Instead, they ignited praise and honor in the hearts of every believer, proving Him to be even more than they thought.

• Punish Him.  They wanted to judge Him harshly to set an example for others.  Instead, they misjudged Him badly and brought eternal punishment upon themselves.

• Stop Him.  They wanted to end His influence with the people.  Instead, they sealed forever His love for the people and their love for Him.

• Kill Him.  They thought killing Him would mean the people would no longer have anything to hope for in Him.  But He didn’t stay dead.  He walked out of the grave and into the hearts of every believer.

Because He did not stay dead, God had the sacrifice He required for all people to be forgiven for their sins. Jesus did not stay dead.  And when we believe in Him, we do not stay dead.  Because He did not stay dead, we can have what the devil has always tried to keep us from having – eternal life.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The Grace of the Lord is always there to heal our hurts or to carry us through the things that hurt.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul asked the Lord three times to remove an infirmity he had. The Lord’s response to Paul is captured in 2 Corinthians 12:9. It says, “And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul’s response to this was to boast in his weaknesses so that the Power of God could be alive in Him.

We commonly accept that grace is the unmerited favor or kindness of God poured out on us. So, what did the Lord mean by saying His grace was sufficient for Paul?  Was His grace sufficient to heal Paul? Or was His grace sufficient to sustain Paul in the event he was not healed?

Grace is indeed the unmerited favor of the Lord. But it doesn’t mean we get to live free of something that challenges our lives as much as it means we are freed to live abundantly with our challenges.  Read the account of this in 2 Corinthians for yourself.  It is not clear whether the Lord healed Paul or not.  Most of us believe Paul was not healed.

But whether healed or not, the Lord wants us to understand the sufficiency and the power of His grace. Grace is grace whether the Lord gives us what we ask in prayer or whether He chooses not to give us what we ask.  Paul was actually sick from being sick with his infirmity. Jesus used the healing power of His grace to heal the sickness Paul had caused by having this infirmity that he wanted to be removed.

I believe the Lord wants to do the same thing with us. Sometimes, the Lord will not give us exactly what we request in prayer.  But He will always give us something better than what we ask.  His grace is sufficient for us either way.  When we are sick of being challenged, grace will carry us through.

The grace of God is one of the primary ways the Lord is able to help us build up our faith in Him.  The unmerited kindness of the Lord causes us to be thankful to Him in the good times and in the bad times.

When we are pressed down by the challenges we face, the grace of the Lord keeps us from feeling like we are overcome by our troubles.  Grace may not remove our troubles, but it keeps us from allowing our troubles to make us become sick as we long for the goodness of life.

When we are anxious about the things we cannot control, the grace of the Lord helps us to learn never to lose control of ourselves as we live in Him.

When we are hurt or attacked by someone or something, the grace of the Lord helps us to find the good that is hidden in evil that is directed towards.  Grace helps us to stand strong against evil with the good that is only found in the Lord.

When we lack little, grace keeps us from becoming proud of having much.  And when we have much, grace keeps us humble enough to know that there are many who have nothing at all.

Grace keeps us from falling into the belief that we are better than others.  It keeps us from having the attitude that sometimes others must get what they deserve so they will learn to change their ways.  Indeed, grace may cause some of us to change our ways, but to many it will help us to change our perspectives about the Power of God.

So then, does the power of God rest on us in our strengths or in our weaknesses?  In both.  If the Lord gives us all that we want always, grace can help us learn to appreciate the Love of God.  If the Lord never gives us the things that we ask, the grace of the Lord can help us appreciate the power of God to carry us through our challenges.

Learn to recognize the grace of the Lord in your life.  It is sufficient for all that you encounter each day. The Grace of the Lord is always with us to heal us or to see us through what challenges us.

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.