Friday the 16th

1 Peter 2:1

¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

 

Rid yourself of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander……well…that frees up a huge chunk of the day! I love this passage because what it is saying is change your way of life, not just in a small way, but down to the very fiber of your being, it lays out the driving force behind a lot of our worldly desires. It shows us the way to live by pointing out what we must leave behind. As sad as it is to actually say, the world today does not promote truthfulness, love, selflessness, and building up of others. So we find ourselves behind the eight ball. How do we excel in the world, yet play by God rules, not the worlds? It is easy to say rid yourself of this or that, but to actually do it is the hard part. Like most things with the Lord, it must be done fully, and there is the key. God is not a half measure God. He is an all in God. He does not give miserly, he gives abundantly. He gave his only son so that we might have eternal life, so that is how we must live. All in. We cannot set aside most of our hypocrisy, or give up all malice, but hang on to a little deceit. We must model our lives by the example God gave us in his Son. We must give to him, as he gives to us; and there is the answer. You see, when you turn your life over to the Lord, you will excel. You will start on the path to being the best, not that you think you can be, but the best that God knows you can be. Why? Because God works for the good in the lives of those that love him. What God blesses, cannot be less than the best. Does that mean that you will become everything you want to be, that you will get everything you ever wanted. No, but you will become everything the Lord NEEDS you to be, and that my friends is spectacular, and beyond anything you can conceive. So work to rid yourself fully of the negatives, it is a work in progress, but you have to get the process started!

 

Peace

Brian

 

 

Thursday the 15th

Proverbs 13:9

 9 The light of the righteous shines brightly,
       but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.

 

We have to let our light shine brightly, all of the time. It is a challenge, and that challenge is one of the biggest ones we face as Christians. It is always easy to let that light shine when you are at church, or at a bible study, however our best opportunity waits for us as soon as we step out of church. We are walking billboards for the Lord. If we go to church every Sunday, yet are flippant about our faith during the week, we show all of those around us that while we might talk a good talk, we must not believe what we say, for our actions do not back up our words. This is a huge hurdle to overcome. I can promise you this, you will never clear that hurdle if you do not jump! We all find comfort in our friendships, and sometimes we find it hard to let that light of Christ shine as brightly as we would like for fear of how it will be received. I would like to offer this point as something to think about the next time you feel like you need to subdue the light burning inside of you. We have put ourselves in a tight spot, you see once we make that life changing decision to follow Christ  we have to let that light shine, we cannot put it under a bowl, and hide it, it must be set out for the world to see. What happens when people see us hide our light? We slight God. We turn God into a punch line of sorts. Like the girl in the movie who the leading man will date, yet never goes around his friends with, nor takes the girl home to the parents.  He tells the girl he loves her, yet he is embarrassed to be seen with her. The Lord warrants much better! This is something that I struggled with for a long time. In the end what I found is that when you let that light shine, when you walk with Christ at your side….well the Lord takes care of  those relationships, in most cases those relationships that you were worried about actually improve. I know for me the people that knew me so well, are still in my life, they recognize that while I am different, it has been a change for the better. Don’t steal the chance from the Holy Spirit to work in someone’s life, let that light shine! Like any flame, if it is robbed of oxygen it will be snuffed out.

 

Peace,

Brian

Tuesday the 13th

1 Peter 1: 22-23

 

 ²²Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

 

Purity comes from  obeying the truth, however we cannot simply stop there, that truth brings about change, real change, tangible change that you can see and feel We are not simply called to love one another, but to love one another deeply…..from the heart. The King James version uses the word fervently from the Greek word ektenos meaning intently, without ceasing.  Here again it comes back to leading with love. Not just your everyday, I love you, but fervent love. An all consuming love that puts the needs of others before your own. Not just every now and then, but always, everyday. Not towards just the people we get along with, but specifically the people that we do not. This is a foreign ides to the natural world, yet it is a concept that we must each struggle with, so that we might understand it fully, and live it unequivocally. The next verse explains why we should fight for this all to well. We must radiate this concept that makes no sense to this world because we are no longer of this world. We live here, we must live in this world for sure, but we are not of it. We have been born again, we have been given a new lease on life, an everlasting and imperishable gift. We must shed not just our old words, but our old actions as well. We must work to reflect the love that Christ reflected so well while He walked this world. We have eternity laid out in front of us, but that path can only be lit with love….love of God and His Son, love of His word, and love of our neighbor. This is the love that will light the world, this is the love that will radiate the warmth that the natural world so desperately needs, this is the love that is ours to receive and to give. We have been purified, now we must take the next step and love.  

 

Peace,

Brian

Thursday the 8th

1 Peter 1: 4-5

into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

 

Of all the things we work for, of all the things we want in our life why do we so often work for our salvation the least? What are you working for right now? What has captivated you to the point that it is your main underlying thought for the day? Is it a car, a vacation, a home? Maybe your totally focused on just trying to survive the day, you think that, in and of itself, is enough, and so that is what you struggle for…..Why? All of that goes away, all of that spoils, breaks, weathers, and typically is quickly replaced by the next shiny thing you see! However you have something that is already set aside for you, something that will never fade, and will last this lifetime and beyond. As Peter reminds us here it is kept for you in heaven. That is the achievement beyond all achievements, that should be our focus. Notice how Peter points out that if you will just lead with faith, not only will you receive this inheritance, but you will be shielded by God’s power. God works for the good in the lives of all that love him, and are called to his purpose (Rom 8:28) If we will put him as our focus, if we will live our lives faith first, everything else second  we will claim that inheritance. When we lead with faith, the path becomes clearer, the day is more brightly lit, because we are walking in the light of the Lord. As a result our earthly lives become blessed as well. Why wouldn’t they? We are shielded by God’s power. We are more than conquerors. Weapons formed against us will not prosper. We have an inheritance waiting for us. It is better than all the gold or silver we could amass. It is there for the taking….will you take it? Will you let your faith lead the way, and allow God to shield you?  As always the offer is never rescinded, but you can refuse it. Anything that you might acquire in this world will fall away, salvation lasts for eternity. Will you live to collect that eternal inheritance?

 

May God bless and keep you,

Brian

 

 

Wed the 7th

James 5:7

 

⁷Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.

 

Paul could not have used a better example than the farmer to show how we must wait with patience. While the farmer waits, he is not idle. There is much work to be done to get ready for the harvest. Most of that work is tiring, and back breaking work. We have a lot on common with the farmer, while we wait for our spiritual harvest there is much work for us to do. So like the farmer we learn to work in faith. We ask for guidance, we pray for understanding, and we actively search out others to help in the work. Always searching, always moving forward, always full of faith that the Lord will provide the path when it is time to move. Patience is the key. We are on His time table not ours. While there is much to do, to try and force it would be a mistake. The Lord let’s us know when it is time to move, and we have to have the patience to work right where we are at until that time comes. The spiritual land we are on at the moment might need more work, or perhaps it is us that needs to take the time given to better our own understanding of the Lord, so that our work might be all the more fruitful. Whatever the case work with the patience of a farmer, trusting in God that our harvest will be bountiful. Bursting forth with the Love that is the Lord.

 

Peace,

Brian

 

 

Monday the 5th

James 4:7

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The devil will flee….and why wouldn’t he. His war was lost the day that Christ rose from the dead. As a result forgiveness, and salvation are ours for the taking. The offer is there everyday. Yet the world keeps the devil around. We feed him, we encourage him, and we entertain him. Many walk right into his snares everyday. Why would people do that? Because it is the easy path to take. Don’t want to take responsibility? Lie. Don’t want to work for what you want? Steal. Want people to think well of you when your actions don’t deserve it? Deceive. Why would the devil give up? Even knowing that he cannot win the war? One soul. One soul at a time is all he is hunting. There is record of hundreds of people coming to Christ as a group, at revivals, Church events, youth ministries. They walk in unbelievers, or skeptics, and leave changed forever soldiers of Christ. The devil never gets that. He is relegated to searching out the lost soul one at a time. It is your choice how you handle him when he comes to call…..and he does make personal visits. If you submit to God, then the devil has lost, oh he might hang around and tempt you a little, but he will not stay, he will move on to easier prey, after all his time is short, and he know it! Will you offer up yourself to the devil “just this once”, “no one will know”, “it is not really cheating”…..whatever the choice, it is yours to make. Will you sell yourself, and the Lord out for a temporary victory? Will you lie down with the world and back bite? Or will you choose to submit, will you choose to be the example of a child of God? We are more than conquerors, we are bound for glory far better than anything that this world holds. Do not allow the devil a foothold in your heart, reject him, his lies, and his temptation. Live your life as a beacon of hope, and love. Submit and radiate the love of the Lord. Let your life be reflective of the family you are a part of with God as your Father, and Christ as your brother….do that, and the devil does not stand a chance.

Peace,

Brian

Thursday the 1st

James 3:18                  

 

¹⁸Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

 

Blessed are the Peacemakers. The problem is, all to often we think of the peacemaker today as the one who caves, the one who always suggests to “drop it” or the one who is always looking for a way to make the problem go away. I don’t know about you, but that does not sound like someone I want to be. However being a peacemaker does not mean that you are a punching bag, or a doormat. It does not mean that you turn a blind eye, nor do you have to be tolerant (compassionate yes, but not tolerant). As a matter of fact a true peace maker will seldom find themselves in a peaceful situation, if that was the case they would be a peace follower, not a peacemaker. By it’s very name you can see that one must be in the middle of a situation where there is not peace to create peace. Paul was a peacemaker, yet when you read his letters you can see that he took on the current issues of the time, and held to his faith. He projected that faith as the platform of his argument for peace.  While Christ was the best example of peace, he always held people accountable. HE was always ready for the Sadducees, and the Pharisees. While his goal was peace, He would not waver in His teachings. If we look at Paul and Christ as an example then we see that a peacemaker will live among conflict, they will use their resources to bring peace through understanding, They will bring peace through sticking to the saving faith, that comes from Christ, and standing on that faith they will lead, not through words, but through their actions.  Today, words are a dime a dozen, it is the person who acts, that shows conviction. Faith, leads to conviction, and conviction to action. Peace will follow, but it will come by the tireless effort of the peacemaker, showing the world the way. This is why the Peacemaker will be blessed, not because he found a way out of the struggle, but because he would not give up. Not because he caved, but because he built a life on faith, and lived that faith. Not because he gave up in the name of  peace, but because he will never relent in his struggle to bring the Peace of Christ to everyone he touches. There is a peacemaker in all of us, will we allow it to come out? Can we be strong enough to face the challenge head on? It can be a daunting, and tiring task, but nothing ever came from a life that was an easy one.

 

Peace,

Brian