Jan. 14th, 2016 Hebrews 12:7-13

Hebrews 12:7-13

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

My kids love it when they are disciplined. Don't your's?

We enjoy the pain of a butt spanking!

We enjoy the chastising of our parents, that scolding look of disapproval.

NOT!

Because we dislike it as a child we scorn it.

Then later in life we look back in hind site and see WHY they did it.

Then you have children and you fully understand!

Thus why do we scorn God's reproof?

Why do we complain "WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN TO ME!"

It is because we don't see what He is doing.

He is MOLDING YOU.

For the moment we grieve, we ache, we morn.... Yet our HOPE is in the NEW DAY!

So therefore: RAISE UP YOUR HANDS! Dry your eyes!

Turn up the worship music in your life and PRAISE HIM.

Your focus on praise will allow your focus to be removed from the pain.

Trust God.

Trust His plan!

Trust HIS purpose!

Believe that HE created you for a PURPOSE!

Ezekiel 36:24-28 Jan. 11th, 2016

Ezekiel 36:24-28

24 For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.[a] 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

This is a story of REDEMPTION!

Everything in life is a story about redemption. God is seeking to restore our HEARTS. In Heaven he will restore creation to where it was suppose to be.

But when God restores the heart.... LOOK OUT WORLD!!!

This verse explains why the NT Christian is not under the law as Paul said. It is because the LAW GIVER has written the LAW ON THEIR HEARTS!

Do you have that? Think about it... when you are driving down the road in Delaware the speed limit (THE LAW) changes. If a wonderful police officer pulls you over and tells you that you were speeding (BREAKING THAT LAW) and you said "Oh but I didn't know it changed" does he say "Oh, ok... since you didn't know it was wrong then it doesn't count!"

NO!!! He says... "TOUGH. Ignorance ain't bliss!"

You are held to the law even if you didn't know it was the law!

BUT because God loves us so much and wants to help us he WRITES THE LAW ON OUR HEART!!!!

We will ALWAYS KNOW IT!

That is the 'Jimminy Cricket' on your heart. That conscious that is saying "You shouldn't do that..."

OH but that comes with a warning... James tells us that when you do what you know you shouldn't do it is a sin.... OUCH!

I am so grateful for a God who writes his law on my heart. Who guides me, directs me, picks be up each and EVERY time when I fail him.

My GOD IS AMAZING!

Jan. 9th, 2016 1 Peter 1:3-9

1 Peter:1:3-9 (NLT)

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

6 So be truly glad.[a] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

I really enjoyed the message version this morning but didn't think it fully captured the GLORY of this verse...

It was so perfect today for me....

1) Because I can not begin to tell you the number of people I have spoke to this very week who are dealing with these 'trials'. Yet as I keep encouraging them, this verses proves that they have something to still rejoice for!

The Trial is now, but it isn't permanent. It may seem like it won't end, that the sorrow doesn't go away, but there is a SALVATION and a HOPE that we can focus on in Jesus' eternal home for us.

2) Because as I was reading it a song was playing on my Spotify list... "Bless the Lord" by Will Reagan. It just repeats on the chorus "Bless the Lord oh my soul and let all that is within me SHOUT OUT!!!"

What if? What if in your sorrow you choose to SHOUT OUT to God with PRAISE?

What if? What if you focused on HIS saving Grace and Hope of eternity and not on your present trail?

If your focus was not inward but OUTWARD would that change your position? Would that change your posture of praise?

There was a time that Mandy and I were experiencing a deep trial in our life. We knew we were on the journey God wanted us on... but it was not easy.

One day someone told us, in fact it might have even been in a sermon... I can't recall... but they challenged us to pray over our past and ask God to show us all the times he SHOWED UP for us!

As we did we began to step through our lives chronologically. We had things like our marriage, our first born etc... but along the way an amazing thing happened...

You see we remembered things that we had forgotten.

As a child I spent some time in the hospital. The doctors had come down to only one possible cause and that was the word "Lukemia". How scary for a young child. I can still see my mother standing next to the dr. crying.

But then I remembered that God healed me. It became something as simple as an allergy to Red Dye #40!

Then we walked down life further and God reminded us of Skylar.

You see our first ultrasound of Skylar we found that her heart was on the wrong side of her body. Now there is a anomaly where all organs etc are reversed but it was only her heart. Thus outside the womb her blood would flow in the wrong direction and she would not survive. It was like this for multiple ultrasounds... BUT GOD showed up and healed her!

HOW DO WE FORGET THESE TIMES WHEN GOD SHOWED UP?

It's like the Israelites who continually SAW GOD but then turned and forgot him or cursed Him.

We are so FICAL as humans...

We get so focused on our CURRENT issues the we MISS how much GOD LOVES US!

What do you need to do today to be reminded about WHO GOD IS and HOW HE HAS SHOWN UP IN YOUR LIVES?