Category Archives: obedience to God

James: Life of Stability, Wisdom, and Faith

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(Join me in reading chapter 1 of James each day this week)

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God is all-knowing. There isn’t any circumstance or situation where God is surprised and says, “Wow!! I didn’t see that coming!?!?” He knows our past. He knows our present. And He knows where He is taking us in the future!

Biblical wisdom is God’s knowledge taken into our hearts through His Word and then applied in our lives. When we are up against something that we are unsure of what to do, we need to ask God for His wisdom. God will give us the exact response we need through His Word and show us how to apply it by faith!

When we do ask and He speaks to us on how to apply the knowledge He has give us in His Word, we need to believe what He has spoken! If we waver on whether or not we will believe that His Word is true and that God is faithful to do what He says He will do, we will be “blown and tossed” by the winds of unbelief and fear. We won’t receive what God intended to give to us — His peace, His goodness, His faithfulness, etc. What we will receive is instability in our lives.

Our focus must be Knowing God intimately through His Word. Then He will enable us to apply His Word to each and every circumstance of our lives i.e. “walk in His wisdom.”

Ask for wisdom! Believe the Word! Live in stability and peace!

Show Us The Father — Abandoned

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Abandoned — To give over entirely.

Today is Mark 14.

Jesus at any moment in His 33 years on earth could have changed His course to the cross. He knew exactly why He had came. He knew how this would all play out. He knew the rejection He would suffer. He knew the pain He would endure. Yet He “abandoned” Himself. He gave Himself over to the purpose of His Heavenly Father.

Over and over in this chapter He warned the disciples that He was going to suffer and die. But He chose to abandon His will that desired for His Heavenly Father to “take this cup” from Him. Then He spoke these words, “Yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Verse 36)

Jesus gave Himself. The Father gave His Son! (John 3:16). Our Heavenly Father abandoned, gave over entirely, His Son for us out of His love. When I consider this great love, my thoughts go to what my response should be.

In every situation and circumstance of my life, may I echo the words of my loving Savior. “Yet not what I will, but what You will.” My Heavenly Father gave without reservation His only Son. Jesus gave without reservation His very life. May I give without reservation EVERYTHING I am and live a life that is abandoned to God’s will!

Show Us The Father — Everything We Need, True Life!

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Today is Mark 10:1-31.

A rich young man ran up to Jesus as He set out on a journey one day. Although the man had everything he could ever need, he knew he was missing something.

He asked Jesus a question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him. “You know the commandments.” This was a true statement. A Jewish man of Jesus’s time would have memorized them, but Jesus began to list them off to the rich young man. The man pointed out to Jesus, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

Then it seems that Jesus switches gears, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor…” However, Jesus pointed out the greatest commandment that the man had missed — The Shema: 

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37‬-‭38‬ ‭ESV‬‬

As a Jewish man, he had customarily repeated this verse twice a day, everyday. Jesus was right, the rich young man knew te commands, BUT he had not observed them all. He loved his wealth more than God, Himself.

Jesus offered him the opportunity to follow Him, the very God who gave the life the rich young man desired. But he “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

The disciples observed the interaction. Afterwards, Peter said something that should be the prayer of our heart, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”

God wants all of us! Total surrender!

When He is all we seek, we will find Him to be all we need!

Whatever we give up, Jesus said we will receive back “a hundredfold” of His provision. And we will also receive the one thing the rich young man longed for — “eternal life.”

Knowing Jesus, is Knowing Our Heavenly Father. THIS is Knowing Life! 

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Show Us The Father — Faithful

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Today’s reading is Mark :1-29.

Jesus went to His hometown. As He was teaching, the people who heard Him had a hard time looking at Jesus as anything more than “the carpenter’s son.” Even though He spoke with wisdom, and did mighty works. They were in “unbelief.” Jesus “marveled” at it. But this did not deter Jesus from continuing His mission that God had sent Him to do. He continued to go about the villages teaching. Jesus was faithful! He displayed the faithfulness of His Heavenly Father.

I know I have acted like the people of Jesus’s hometown a time or two in my life. I heard the Word of Wisdom, and I knew that God did mighty works, Yet I stood in unbelief. I am thankful that God has been faithful to me. He continued to call to me. He continued to draw me to Himself.

The Apostle Paul described the faithfulness of God like this:

“if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus “could do no mighty works there…” because of their unbelief. His desire is to do mighty works in our lives. This is why He faithfully pursues us. May we repent of our unbelief and surrender to Him our faithful God!

Show Us The Father — The Personal God

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““You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭5‬:‭31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus was surrounded by crowds of people, but He still saw the needs of the one. One man in a crowd needed Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Jesus’s response is to head towards that man’s, Jairus, home to pray for his little girl.

As they walk through the crowd where people were pressing up against Jesus on all sides, one woman was healed in a very personal way. Jesus stopped to address her individually.

You and I are only one in 8 billion on this planet. There are so many others pressing in around Jesus. Yet He stops for the one, you/ me.

So many around us but He comes to our home of our hearts and raises the dead within us.

Jesus shows us a Heavenly Father who is personal. He is for each of us one on one. He wants intimate relationship with each of us. Jesus went to the cross, died and rose again to extend the invitation that our Heavenly Father desires for us to receive. He desires for us to come. Will we respond to His personal invitation for our time to be one on one with Him?

Show Us The Father — The Sower of the Word

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Today is Mark 4:1-20.

“The sower sows the word.” (Verse 14)

I’ve planted a few gardens. The idea behind a garden is to plant a seed that will produce ALOT. When I put a seed in the ground, I am desiring to see the good vegetables to come after time of tending the seeds and the plants they will yield.

Our Heavenly Father has given us the seed of His Word. He sows this seed within our spiritual heart. His desire is to see the good fruit that it will bear in our lives.

The seed of the Word is “living and active.” It is good seed. It will produce what it was sent to produce. However, if fruit is not produced, the issue isn’t the seed. The issue is the condition of the soil the seed fell upon.

Simply put, what is the condition of your spiritual heart. Is it hard and unyielding. Is it filled with rocks (sin) that keep the Word from taking root. Is it lined with thorny plants “the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things” that “chokes the Word, and proves unfruitful.” Or is your heart good soil that hears the Word and accepts it bearing fruit.

Our Heavenly Father is sending forth His Word. He desires for us to receive it and enjoy the good fruit it produces in our lives. Not just a little of the good fruit, but a lot! His desire is for us to receive it by hearing it and accepting it. He is the Sower of good seeds. Will we receive?

Show Us The Father— Relational God

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Today is Mark 2:18-28.

The Pharisees thought they had God figured out. They had a list of laws with boxes to check off on that list. If they fulfilled it all they thought they were all good with God. They had “religion”…

Jesus came. He was Emmanuel — God with us. He came displaying God the Father to anyone who would pay attention to Him. Jesus walked and talked with the people who followed Him. He lived in relationship with them. His words He spoke and His call to follow Him literally changed lives. Relating to God was no longer a list of boxes to check off. Relating to God became a relationship — the very thing God wanted all along. Following the list of rules regarding the Sabbath (including picking grain for a hungry group of men) was not what God was after all along. It was their hearts.

God wants our hearts as well. When we truly love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we will do the things that God desires. We do not need a list of rules regarding the Sabbath when our greatest desire is to love and obey the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus.

God will give us a new heart that desires to do what is right if we will only ask Him to. His desire is for us to know Him intimately in a relationship, not follow a list of rules.

New Beginnings in The Book of Acts — Proclaiming the Kingdom

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Today is Acts 28.

The final chapter of Acts tells of Paul’s time on the island of Malta and the miracles that happened there and his arrival at Rome. No matter what the circumstances or possible opposition, Paul preached to everyone and anyone who would listen to him.

The final verse of Acts says this:

“He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!” Acts 28:31 NIV

Paul lived a life that experienced the promised power to be a witness. He knew how to receive comfort in hard times from the Holy Spirit. His life is an example of what being full of the Holy Spirit is like.

God has offered us the same New Beginning that Paul experienced. We too can experience Jesus and receive His New Life! The same Holy Spirit that Paul was filled with when Ananias placed his hands on Paul in Acts 9, desires to fill us too!

May we proclaim the kingdom and teach others about the Lord Jesus as Paul did, “with all boldness and without hindrance.” (verse 31)

New Beginnings in Acts — Almost Persuaded

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Today is Acts 26.

Paul was brought before King Agrippa to plead his case. He once again tells his testimony of how he had an encounter with the living, resurrected Jesus. In that encounter, Jesus told Paul what his mission in life would be when he met him on the road to Damascus.

“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” Acts 26:16-18 ESV

He was testifying of the power of God that enables us to turn from the darkness of sin- anything we do that is against God’s laws and separates us from God. He told everyone he was in contact with about what he had both physically and spiritually experienced, a God who could take eyes that are blind- unable to see God’s ways and truth- and make them see. He spoke of forgiveness from God for the wrongs we have done and being set apart for God’s purposes through faith.

This is all still available to us today. The Holy Spirit continues to move our hearts to desire to know all of what Paul was telling King Agrippa about. We have a choice. King Agrippa did too. But his response was truly a sad one.

“…In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”” Acts 26:28 ESV

Paul’s desire was not simply to be free of his chains. His desire was that everyone he came in contact with would know the Jesus he knew. Paul wanted them to experience the relationship with the Holy Spirit he was experiencing. His response was this to the Kings question.

“And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.”” Acts 26:29 ESV

This is why I write these things to you. I know from experience the power of God who broke off the chains of sin by which I was held captive. I can tell you the difference of walking in the darkness of my own ways as opposed to walking into the light of God’s path- His ways.

Do not be “almost persuaded” to surrender your heart entirely to God! King Agrippa walked away from Paul’s testimony of Jesus that day unchanged. May we see the value of what he spoke and seek out the relationship he described. It is the only way!

New Beginnings in The Book of Acts — “I Would Like to Hear the Man Myself”

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Today is Acts 25.

The Jewish leaders of Paul’s time refused to listen to the truth of God. They hated Paul, and they hated his testimony regarding Jesus. The would not believe that Jesus was alive, that Paul had had an encounter with Him, and that Jesus had changed Paul’s life.

They wanted the message that Paul was teaching and preaching to die. In their minds, the way to achieve it would be to kill Paul himself. The results of this mission was Paul imprisoned.

However, this gave Paul more opportunity to share what Jesus had done for him. First he shared with Felix, the Roman official. Then the opportunity came to speak to King Agrippa.

“I would like to hear the man myself.” King Agrippa spoke these words. He was not a believer in Jesus, but he was curious of what Paul was preaching.

Our world is filled with people similar to those of Paul’s time. There are those who have heard the message of Jesus rejecting and resisting it. There are those who are curious. Who would “like to hear” our testimony of what Jesus has done.

The question is will we respond as Paul did? Will we tell everyone with whom God brings into contact with us about the encounter we have experienced with Jesus?

Paul was not afraid to testify of the Gospel of Jesus! Are we? We live in a world with people who “would like to hear.” How they respond is not the issue. Our willingness to testify is.