Posts

Posted on

Joy and peace

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 NIV

What does ‘God of hope’ mean? The first thing that we can know about the term ‘God of hope’ is that it is another name for God. The One and Only God. It is a beautiful way to describe God. The second thing is that the hope that God gives us when we accept His gracious gift of forgiveness and salvation is the hope of what lies ahead. Not just in this life but in the next. In the afterlife, for all of eternity. Our God is the God of hope, of resurrection, of eternal life, of not being held captive by the power of sin. This God, our God, wants to fill us with joy and peace.

Our lives are empty before we come to Christ. We fill them with all kinds of things that the world says are going to satisfy us, make us feel whole, but they don’t. Instead they make us feel like we need to keep looking for more. What we need to be filled with is from God. Joy and peace are just the start of what God can fill us with.

Joy is different from happiness. Happiness comes from what is occurring around us, those temporary situations that make us feel happy. Joy comes from within and it comes from being God’s child. When we are accepted into God’s family as heirs, we have the ability to be filled with joy. God will give it to us, but we have to accept it, and express it. True joy can be seen in how we deal with life, not just the good parts, but also it’s challenges, hardships and moments of utter despair. Joy comes from inside and from God.

Peace is defined in the world as being moments when there is no conflict in our lives. That is not the peace that is being talked about here. This peace is a state of mind that comes from God. Knowing that we are saved, not by anything we have done or could ever do, but by the grace that our amazing God has extended to us, can bring peace. We have to set our minds to focus on God and the peace that He has placed inside of us. Just like joy, true peace can be seen in our lives by the way we handle everyday life, good and difficult times. We build our relationship with God one moment at a time. We come to Him for forgiveness when we have sinned, we speak to Him in prayer and we place our faith in Him.

Peace and joy come from God. They are dependent on our inner situation, whether we are born again or still living in darkness. To be born again, we have to place our faith in Jesus, which means to also place our trust in Him. In the verse Paul wrote that ‘as you trust in him’. Trusting God to do what He says He will do is scary for us. We are used to dealing with each other, imperfect human beings who do not always follow through with what we have promised to do. God is different in that He doesn’t lie, He doesn’t make promises He doesn’t plan to keep. Placing our trust in Him is a sur thing and we won’t be disappointed by Him.

In the end of the verse Paul states ‘so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’. Joy and peace are part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When we are truly at peace and we are filled with joy, we are able to live life overflowing with hope. To be overflowing with hope means to have so much hope that you can’t contain it inside any longer and it flows out into every part of your life. Hope can also be described as a deep sense of assurance. Just like joy and peace, hope can be seen by others in our actions, our attitude, and our words.

To be filled with joy and peace and to be overflowing with hope are all blessings from God. When the Holy Spirit fills us, He enables us to be connected to God’s grace and love. Therefore, we can’t force ourselves to be filled with joy, peace or hope, it happens because of that connection with God.

Below are some questions that you can answer. Again, I would love to hear your responses if you are willing to put them in the comments section. If you don’t want to leave them where others can read them, you can private message me on my Facebook page ‘For His Honor.’

Do you experience joy?

How does joy present in your everyday life?

Are you at peace?

What does being at peace look like for you?

Are you saved by the blood of Jesus?

Posted on

Ascension Day

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11 NIV

Today is the day that those who are followers of Jesus celebrate His ascension into heaven, when He was taken up into the clouds, alive, right in front of the disciples. Christians and churches all over the world celebrate this event today. 

This event, the ascension, is important to our faith, the Christian faith.  For us to believe that the ascension meant anything, we have to first believe that what Jesus did on the cross is real and true.  We have to believe that Jesus went willingly to the cross, to not just take our sins and pay for them, but to actually bear our sins as if He had committed each and every one of them. 

After paying the ultimate and final price for our sins, so that we could have a relationship with God, the Father, Jesus was placed in a grave and remained there for 3 days.  After those 3 days, Jesus rose from the grave, not as a spirit, not as a ghost, not as a zombie, not as anything other than a live human being.   He defeated the one thing that every human has to face in their life, He defeated death.

After spending time with His disciples, Jesus was taken up to heaven, not by dying again but in the very body He had been walking around in – His glorified body.

The Ascension marks the exaltation of Jesus to His rightful place as God, sharing the heavenly throne with His Father.  The ascension of Jesus happened right in front of a lot of witnesses, it was visible for everyone to see, it was physical – He was lifted into the clouds to heaven. This very visual, very physical occurrence is just one more thing that skeptics could not explain.  They tried using their limited earthly knowledge and there was no other explanation than that Jesus had risen from the grave and 40 days later rose into the clouds in front of a large crowd of people.

It is important that people saw this, just like when He rose from the grave.  It was important for people to see Him, touch Him, eat with Him, talk with Him, walk with Him.  The witnesses needed that physical reassurance that He was no longer dead.  Not ascending right after the resurrection made it hard for the unbelievers, the pharisees, to be able to say that the resurrection was made up.  The same is true for the ascension, if there had been no witnesses to it, those who opposed Jesus would have said that it was all made up too.  That His followers were not letting go of what they believed and were willing to tell lies to continue with their claims.

I am sure that the unbelievers and the pharisees did that anyways, but those who saw Jesus physically and were with Him when He ascended, they had the physical and visual experience of watching Him ascend that probably stayed with them for the rest of their lives.  Others could say that they were lying but they knew they were not.

It is important to us that Jesus ascend because it showed that He had finished what He came to earth to accomplish. Now that His objective was completed, He was returning to heaven.  Jesus needed to return, to ascend, so He could take His rightful place at the right hand of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:3 says “The Son is the shining brightness of God’s glory. He is the exact likeness of God’s being. He uses his powerful word to hold all things together. He provided the way for people to be made pure from sin. Then he sat down at the right hand of the King, the Majesty in heaven.”

In returning to His rightful place beside God the Father, Jesus is able to do a few things on our behalf. First, He is able to mediate for each believer. Pleading our case so that God will continue to forgive us because we are righteous through Jesus. Second, He went to prepare a place for us there so we would be at home with Him.  He promised His followers that He was going to prepare a place in His father’s house of many rooms.  He is preparing a home for us so that we will be comfortable with Him in heaven.  Heaven, where there is no war, no death, no pain, no tears, no hate, but instead there is peace, eternal life, love and joy. Where we are able to spend eternity with God and with Jesus.

Every heart that is troubled, every mind that is filled with regret and guilt, every person who believes the lies that the devil has told them about being too far gone to be saved, every one of us is able to come to Jesus and be saved.  I pray that if you have not accepted this gift, that you will reconsider your decision today.

Below are some questions that you can answer. Again, I would love to hear your responses if you are willing to put them in the comments section. If you don’t want to leave them where others can read them, you can private message me on my Facebook page ‘For His Honor.’

Have you accepted the gift of salvation that God planned and Jesus carried out?

What do you picture heaven to look like?

What do you imagine the disciples were feeling as they watched their friend, the Messiah, float up into the clouds and out of sight?

Posted on

Using our gifts

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10 NIV

God is gracious to us, everyone of us. He has given each of us at least one gift, if not more, that we can use in our lives. Our choice is if we use it to serve Him or if we use it to serve ourselves. When I say we are given a gift or two, I mean that God has placed in each person a natural ability to do something. That natural ability is not present for all the things we can do, but typically for the specific gift that God has graced that person with. I am not saying that the natural ability means that you don’t have to learn things, work at things but the process of learning what you need in order to use your gift, is not typically difficult.

For example, someone who has the gift of teaching, still has to learn the material, how to present the information to others and how to prepare the material in a way that the desired amount can be covered. However, as they are learning those skills, they may not have many challenges in learning it, it may seem as if it just comes naturally to them.

Some examples of other gifts are the ability to play music, encourage others, lead, preach, provide comfort to others. This is not an all inclusive list, but only a few of the many gifts that God has graciously giving to people throughout time. Sometimes we struggle to figure out what our gift or gifts are. You would think it would not be a hard thing to figure out since I believe we have some natural ability to do it, but we don’t always want to acknowledge what our gift is and that can happen for a few different reasons.

Sometimes we just don’t want to use the gift that God has given us. For example, a person who is naturally musical may not want to be recognized as having this gift because they don’t want to play the instrument or sing in front of others. Another way to look at this is to think of the person who has the gift of hospitality and is amazing at it, but doesn’t want to do it because maybe they want to teach. At this point, our desires sometimes influence our decisions about whether we will or will not use our God-given gift.

There are challenges we may face if we try to pursue using a gift that God has not given us, and that is that we may not be very successful at it. Not accepting that God has given us a certain gift is one issue that we face as human beings. Another other issue is the idea of wanting a gift like someone else has. This is not just wanting to have a different gift and trying to pursue it, but I am referring to wanting a different gift because you have seen what having that gift looks like for someone else.

God has given us the gifts that He has deemed to be the perfect gift for us to use to further His kingdom. If we are willing to stop and remember that God is perfect and knows best always, then we should be willing to submit to His guidance and pursue using the gift He has given us.

We need to each figure out for ourselves what our gift is from God. There are assessments that can be completed to help us figure out what gift we have and the assessments are pretty accurate. When we do figure it out, then we should pray asking God to show us how we can use it. It is a gift from God and can be used to further God’s kingdom.

If you don’t know what gift you have been given by God, here is a link to an assessment that can help point you in the right direction. https://gifts.churchgrowth.org/spiritual-gifts-survey/

This is only one of many that are available on the internet. I pray that you are using your gift or gifts to being others to Christ and if you don’t know what your gift is, that you explore the many tools available to determine it.

Below are some questions that you can answer. Again, I would love to hear your responses if you are willing to put them in the comments section. If you don’t want to leave them where others can read them, you can private message me on my Facebook page ‘For His Honor.’

Do you know what your gift is?

Do you know if you have more than one?

How are you using your gift?

How would you like to use your gift?

Posted on

Walk in the Light

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 NIV

John is talking to believers, children of God, in 1 John. It is believed that he is talking to those who were living in the area that is now Turkey. The believers were struggling with false teachers and these false teachers were effective. This led the believers to begin questioning what they believed, they were having trouble telling what was the truth from what was a lie.

This is something that I know many people struggle with today. We want to believe what we hear and see on social media, what we see on the news, what we read in papers, but it is hard to discern what is truth and what is lies. The devil is very effective in distributing lies. He makes sure that when he is telling the lie that it has some truth to it, that it is not so far out of reason that it can be easily believed as being the truth.

As followers of Christ, children of God, co-heirs with Christ, we have an advantage that non-believers do not have. We have God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. We are able to take the information we are given, whether it is from an outside source such as social media, the news, etc. or from inside our own minds and check it against the most consistent, reliable source there is, God’s word.

The light that John is writing about in this verse is Jesus. John is writing this letter to these believers because he wants to help them in their walk of faith. He is trying to lead them as they grow in their relationship with Jesus. What Jesus had been teaching during His ministry was a very new way of thinking for those who heard it. Some of the new believers had not been believers very long, and were struggling in changing what they had believed for years. John was reminding them that Jesus was the Light and was shining light into a dark world.

The dark world was not only the world of the unbeliever, but was also the world of those who proclaimed to be the religious elite of the Jewish nation. There were so many laws that had been created by man to accompany God’s laws, that keeping them was impossible. People began to not worship God and want to follow God’s laws, but instead became obsessed with the law and feared breaking it.

John is telling them that a light has come that will free all of them from this darkness. That light is Jesus. The challenge with follow Jesus, is that you have to actually follow Him. You can’t say you are a follower and then not change your path. John tells us we are to walk in the light, and walking, as we all know, requires action. When we walk in the light, we are walking with Jesus. What does walking look like?

When we decide to be a follower of Christ, we are choosing to change our behaviors so that they are in line with what God has laid out in His word. We try to be as consistently obedient as we can be. We will never be perfect while we are here on earth, but we strive to do what God is asking as much as humanly possible. The more we live in obedience to God, the more we are growing in our walk with God, the more we are walking in the Light.

John states that we have fellowship with one another. I believe that John does not simply mean that we go to church and see each other on Sundays. Fellowship in this context can also mean having relationships with other believers that are positive, peaceful and supportive. It is beneficial for us as believers to support and encourage each other as we grow in our faith, to maintain peaceful interactions with each other.

The last part of the verse says that ‘the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’ If we think of light as having the ability to remove darkness, we can see that Light can be cleansing. Jesus cleans us with His blood and because He is the Light that takes away the darkness of our sin. This occurs all day, every day, as we are incapable of not sinning, we need perpetual cleansing from Jesus. That cleansing is not just for our guilt, but sin leaves a stain on our lives, on our very beings. Jesus washes that away with His blood. He took on, became sin when He died on the cross for each one of us. He defeated sin and death so that we can live in eternity with Him.

I pray that if you do not already have a personal relationship with Jesus, that you would not wait another minute and in this moment, commit your life to Him.

Below are some questions that you can answer. Again, I would love to hear your responses if you are willing to put them in the comments section. If you don’t want to leave them where others can read them, you can private message me on my Facebook page ‘For His Honor.’

How do you maintain fellowship with the believers around you, since we are all imperfect?

We all have moments where we fall back into the darkness, how do you find your way back to the Light?

Since our lives are our witness, how do you show God’s love and light to others?

Posted on

Witnesses in Jerusalem

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NIV

Easter was a few weeks ago. During the time after Easter, after the resurrection, many people saw Jesus in His glorified form. Not fully glorified because He had not ascended to the Father yet, but glorified none the less. Jesus ascended 40 days after the resurrection and during those last days with His disciples, He was giving them final pieces of instruction.

In this verse Jesus tells them that they will receive power from the Holy Spirit. I can’t imagine what they may have been thinking as they heard that they were going to receive power through a spirit. They knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and they knew that He had given them the power to perform miracles in God’s name because they had done it while they were with Jesus.

In Luke 9:1-6, we read “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.” Luke 9:1-6 NIV

Jesus had empowered His disciples to spread the great news of the Gospel. The difference between what happened in Luke, before the crucifixion and what was happening, after the resurrection, was that Jesus was not going to be with them in person any longer. He did not go with them in Luke when He sent them out, but they were able to come back to Him when they were done. Now He was not going to be physically here on earth with them any longer.

As they traveled with Jesus, they went wherever Jesus went, they did not go alone very often. However, the idea of being witnesses is what was intended all along. Jesus had been preparing them for this very moment, when they would be without Him. He had prepared them for this the entire time they walked with Him. After Jesus was gone, the disciples continued to follow His instructions so they could be the witnesses He wanted them to be.

In Acts chapter 2, the disciples receive the Holy Spirit at what we now call Pentecost. This is the beginning of them spreading across the world, as they knew it, becoming the proclaimers of the great news of Jesus and God’s love. The act of being witnesses for Jesus did not end with the disciples, but continues today with each one of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus. Many people think that you have to be a missionary or a pastor to be a witness for Jesus. That is not true, everyone of us who has that personal relationship with Jesus can witness about what He has done for us in our lives, what He has meant to us and the changes we have made thanks to His indwelling power. Our everyday lives, how we handle situations, the language we use, how we treat others, those are all ways that we are witnessing either for Jesus or for the devil. I pray that it is for Jesus.

Below are some questions for you to think about and answer if you wish. If you want to leave a comment with the question and your answers, I would love to hear from you.

Do you consider yourself a witness for Jesus and what He has done in your life?

In what ways does your witness demonstrate the love of God?

In what ways have you seen the Holy Spirit at work in your life since you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Posted on

Moving forward with posts

Good evening, I wanted to thank you for reading my posts. I have been silent for a while now but want to get back to writing and publishing my blog. I want to only post what God leads me to post. I am going to try and do one larger post with questions each week. It is a format that I have found helpful in my studies. I would love to hear from anyone about different methods that help you study God’s word. My first post in this platform is titled “Witnesses in Jerusalem”. I hope what God has led me to write helps those who read it.

Posted on

Psalms 146:5

“Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.” Psalms 146:5 NIV

The psalmist in this verse is encouraging everyone who reads this verse or hears it to put their trust and hope in God. We often put our hope in other people, whether they are people we know or people we look up to. The challenge with this is that they are people, human and as people and humans we are not perfect. We let others down, others let us down. By placing our hope in others and not God, we are setting ourselves up to be disappointed, hurt and discouraged.

When we place our hope in God, we are placing it with the only perfect being. We could argue that even when we place our hope in God, we can be disappointed or discouraged. However, if we are willing to look at what is going on, what we are disappointed or discouraged about, we usually find that our disappointment or discouragement is occurring because we wanted a certain outcome and we didn’t get what we wanted.

Since God is perfect, not us, He knows what we need and what is the perfect outcome for each one of us. The result we are looking for may not be the best result for us and since God knows that, He gives us what we need, what is best for us. Those who place their lives, their decisions, their hopes in God are blessed and they will tell you they are blessed, if asked.

Where do you place your hope, who do you want help from, others or God?

Posted on

Light of the world

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 NIV

When we first look at this verse, many people focus on the ‘light of the world’ part of it. I want to focus on the ‘I am’ part of the verse to begin with. When God was speaking to Moses on the mountain at the burning bush, He told him to tell the Israelites that I AM sent him. That’s because I AM was the explanation of Who God was and still is. God is and has just always been. Jesus is using I AM in the same way here, He is and has always been.

When He added ‘the light of the world’, He was conveying that He was the way to salvation. The Jewish people considered light to be goodness, intellect and salvation. He is in essence saying ‘I am and have always been and I am the salvation you need.’

For the Gentiles that may not have had the idea of goodness connected to light, it is important to acknowledge that when Jesus spoke these sentences into existence, it was during a festival. Festivals, back then and even today, are known for the different lights that are present throughout them. Most people like going to festivals at night because the lights create a welcoming environment. There were not as many different styles of lights in Jesus’s time as there are now, but still the idea of light is welcoming. You can see everything that is lit, there are no surprises because you know what is in front of you.

When the Israelites were in the desert, God provided a pillar of fire to lead them during the night as they were walking. Jesus wants everyone to know that as ‘the Light of the world’, He illuminates everything and is the One we should follow. He is telling us that He is not just any light but the light.

Jesus illuminates the darkness that is present everywhere in our world. By following Jesus we will not walk in darkness any longer. If we choose to step away from Jesus we will return to the darkness, but as long as we choose to follow Him, remain close to Him, we will walk in light.

The question then is, do you choose light or darkness, Jesus or the world?

Posted on

Even though we do not see Him

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV

We are officially in the Lenten season. This is the time when we as Christians can take the opportunity to focus more intently on what Christ gave up during those 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry and then ultimately on the cross. Lent ends on Maundy Thursday, when we remember the last meal that Jesus had with His disciples. The next day, Good Friday, we remember the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for each and every one of us.

At the moment that Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross and ended His time here on earth, His mother and all those who believed in Him and loved Him, grieved. They believed that they would never see Him again, talk with Him again, spend time with Him. They were surprised on the 3rd day when He appeared to them alive. They were struggling to believe that He was going to rise after His death even after He told them Himself. They completely believed and trusted Him once they saw Him in His resurrected body.

Peter was one of them, he had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, shared meals with Jesus, had listened and believed in Jesus for 3 years. So as he wrote this letter, he knew those he was writing to had not had that privilege. If they chose to believe in Christ they would be doing it without having ever seen Him. That is what faith is. John recorded in John 20:29, Jesus saying that “…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.

Even though you don’t see Him in person here on earth, do you believe? I pray that you do.

Posted on

Light has dawned

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2 NIV

Isaiah is talking about the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Even though he wrote this centuries before Jesus came to earth, Isaiah was telling the Israelites that a wonderful Light was coming. A light that was going to shine in the darkness, even the darkness where light has not been for a long time. There is nowhere that this light cannot shine.

It will be up to the people walking in darkness then to decide if they are going to choose to follow the light or remain in darkness. From the teachings that are provided throughout the New Testament, it is evident that not everyone chooses to follow the light when they see it. The important question for each one of us today, knowing that the Light has dawned, is have you chosen to follow the Light or to continue to walk in darkness?

Only you can answer that for yourself, and when you do, remember to be honest with yourself. No one else on earth may know what is in your heart but God knows. He wants you to choose the Light, but He won’t drag you to Himself kicking and screaming, it has to be a voluntary choice to have a relationship with Him.

The Light has dawned, which do you choose……Light or darkness?